F1 race results: Max Verstappen wins Miami GP from P9 on grid

His team-mate Sergio Perez led from pole position, running medium tyres like the majority of the field, while Verstappen started ninth on hards after his qualifying woes restricted him to ninth on the grid.

As expected, Verstappen worked his way through the field, and led the middle stages of the race after Perez pitted.

After Verstappen stopped, he rejoined just behind Perez, but quickly passed his team-mate to ensure his third victory of the year.

2023 F1 Miami Grand Prix results

Cla	Driver		Laps	Gap	Interval	Points
1	Max Verstappen		57			26
2	Sergio Perez		57	5.384	5.384	18
3	Fernando Alonso		57	26.305	20.921	15
4	George Russell		57	33.229	6.924	12
5	Carlos Sainz		57	42.511	9.282	10
6	Lewis Hamilton		57	51.249	8.738	8
7	Charles Leclerc		57	52.988	1.739	6
8	Pierre Gasly		57	55.670	2.682	4
9	Esteban Ocon		57	58.123	2.453	2
10	Kevin Magnussen		57	1'02.945	4.822	1
11	Yuki Tsunoda		57	1'04.309	1.364
12	Lance Stroll		57	1'04.754	0.445
13	Valtteri Bottas		57	1'11.637	6.883
14	Alex Albon		57	1'12.861	1.224
15	Nico Hulkenberg		57	1'14.950	2.089
16	Zhou Guanyu		57	1'18.440	3.490
17	Lando Norris		57	1'27.717	9.277
18	Nyck de Vries		57	1'28.949	1.232
19	Oscar Piastri		56
20	Logan Sargeant		56
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How the 2023 F1 Miami Grand Prix unfolded

Perez held his pole position advantage into Turn 1, leading ahead of Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) and Carlos Sainz (Ferrari). Behind them, Pierre Gasly (Alpine) and George Russell (Mercedes) passed Kevin Magnussen (Haas) to run fourth and fifth respectively. Further back, Lando Norris (McLaren) was tagged from behind by Nyck de Vries (AlphaTauri) at the first corner, dropping them to the tail of the field.

Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) passed Magnussen for sixth at Turn 11, while Verstappen stayed in ninth on lap one, having started on the hard tyre. But he leapt ahead of both Leclerc and Magnussen at the start of lap 4 to run sixth, with Magnussen taking advantage to vault back in front of Leclerc as they briefly ran three-wide.

Perez pulled clear of the DRS range of Alonso out front, while Sainz ran a close third. Verstappen outbraked Russell into Turn 17 on lap eight and repeated the move on Gasly a lap later to take fourth. Russell also passed Gasly a few corners later, at Turn 1 at the start of lap 10.

Verstappen was 4.6s behind leader Perez at this point and set about closing the gap to Sainz. Verstappen DRS-ed past Sainz into Turn 11 on lap 14 and repeated the move on Alonso a lap later to make it a Red Bull 1-2 by lap 15 – with the lead gap already down to 3.7s.

In the battle for best of the rest, Sainz was right on Alonso’s tail when he pitted on 19 – locking up his brakes as he entered the pitlane – and rejoined in heavy traffic. He had to battle past Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Nico Hulkenberg (Haas), but was pinged for speeding in the pitlane anyway, and received a 5s penalty.

Perez was the first Red Bull to pit on lap 21, with a 2.2-second stop that allowed Verstappen to lead. Alonso pitted from second on lap 25, having extended his stint on mediums, rejoining behind Sainz on the road, but running ahead with his penalty taken into account.

Alonso passed Sainz anyway, at Turn 11 just before half distance, and moved ahead of the long-running Esteban Ocon (Alpine) a couple of laps later to reclaim third. Russell came into the frame again, passing Sainz for fourth on lap 38.

Verstappen proved faster on much older tyres than Perez was on new hards, and pitted on lap 46 – although his stop was a relatively slow 3.1s – and Max rejoined behind his team-mate on fresh mediums. But Perez was on hard tyres that had 25 laps on them, and although he tried his best to defend, Verstappen passed him with 10 laps to go at Turn 1 and pulled away to win by over 5s.

Alonso finished a distant third, ahead of Russell and Sainz. Hamilton surged to sixth in the closing stages, passing Leclerc and Gasly. Ocon and Magnussen rounded out the point scorers.

2023 F1 Miami Grand Prix fastest laps

Cla	Driver		Lap	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Max Verstappen		56	1'29.708			217.184
2	Fernando Alonso		57	1'30.519	0.811	0.811	215.238
3	Sergio Perez		57	1'30.560	0.852	0.041	215.141
4	Lewis Hamilton		57	1'30.669	0.961	0.109	214.882
5	Lance Stroll		44	1'30.862	1.154	0.193	214.426
6	Nico Hulkenberg		36	1'30.901	1.193	0.039	214.334
7	George Russell		57	1'31.015	1.307	0.114	214.065
8	Yuki Tsunoda		56	1'31.038	1.330	0.023	214.011
9	Esteban Ocon		56	1'31.143	1.435	0.105	213.765
10	Carlos Sainz		55	1'31.362	1.654	0.219	213.252
11	Charles Leclerc		57	1'31.434	1.726	0.072	213.084
12	Nyck de Vries		57	1'31.562	1.854	0.128	212.786
13	Kevin Magnussen		53	1'31.691	1.983	0.129	212.487
14	Zhou Guanyu		56	1'31.736	2.028	0.045	212.383
15	Valtteri Bottas		56	1'31.838	2.130	0.102	212.147
16	Alex Albon		55	1'31.852	2.144	0.014	212.115
17	Pierre Gasly		55	1'31.971	2.263	0.119	211.840
18	Oscar Piastri		56	1'32.006	2.298	0.035	211.760
19	Logan Sargeant		50	1'32.384	2.676	0.378	210.893
20	Lando Norris		47	1'32.401	2.693	0.017	210.854
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2023 F1 Miami Grand Prix tyre strategy

Cla	Driver		1		2
1	Max Verstappen		H	45	M	12
2	Sergio Perez		M	20	H	37
3	Fernando Alonso		M	25	H	34
4	George Russell		M	17	H	40
5	Carlos Sainz		M	18	H	39
6	Lewis Hamilton		H	37	M	20
7	Charles Leclerc		M	17	H	40
8	Pierre Gasly		M	15	H	42
9	Esteban Ocon		H	39	M	18
10	Kevin Magnussen		M	14	H	43
11	Yuki Tsunoda		H	36	M	21
12	Lance Stroll		H	43	M	16
13	Valtteri Bottas		M	15	H	42
14	Alex Albon		M	22	H	35
15	Nico Hulkenberg		H	33	M	24
16	Zhou Guanyu		H	31	M	26
17	Lando Norris		S	4	H	53
18	Nyck de Vries		M	15	H	42
19	Oscar Piastri		S	5	H	51
20	Logan Sargeant		M	2	H	54
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