Luke’s Weekend Take – Miami GP 2024

We head now into Saturday for the Sprint Race and we see Alex Albon opting to start from the pits as Williams decide to do a suspension set-up change ahead of the race and breaking Parc Ferme, while we see Esteban Ocon get a 10 second penalty as he hit Charles Leclerc in the pitlane as he was coming out of the garage to the grid. After a quick formation lap all 19 cars line up on the grid to go (with Alex Albon in the pitlane) and when the lights went off they all went and Verstappen managed to get away well and so did Leclerc who by Turn 1 was side by side Verstappen but due to hi being on the inside he had to back out as he got slightly squeezed by Verstappen and this put him right into the firing line of Perez, however Leclerc manages to hold 2^nd place but Perez got jumped by Ricciardo and dropped to 4^th while the Aussie got into the podium positions with the VCARB car.

Further back we see a car spin out in the distance and the double Yellow Flags being waved as we see Lewis Hamilton dive bomb Alonso, while Alonso had Stroll to his left as well. Hamilton due to the speed he was going into the corner hit Alonso which in turn caught Stroll who ended up clipping Norris’s back wheel and giving Norris a puncture and spin out into the run off and out of the race. This incident brought out the Safety Car so the marshals could clear out Norris’s car and the debris on track. Stroll at the end of the 1^st lap also went into the pits to retire due to damage while his teammate pitted for a new front wing and the hard tyres. Stewards looked into this incident and concluded that no further investigation was required which was quite surprising as in my eyes this was Hamilton’s fault and caused a collision.

While under the Safety Car, the cars were passing through the pitlane so that marshals can the debris properly, Ocon took this opportunity to pit and serve his 10 second penalty while Hamilton was noted by the stewards for speeding in the pitlane. Norris was also noted to the stewards for crossing the track on foot which is not allowed for safety purposes and at the end was given a €50,000 fine for doing so and a driver reprimand.

Safety Car period ended, and they went back racing as we see Verstappen getting away nicely and after 1 lap, he was already a second ahead of Leclerc to defend from the DRS threat. On Lap 5 we see Perez get back past Ricciardo to get back into 3^rd and Ricciardo is immediately under pressure from Sainz behind him, but Ricciardo was still in the DRS of Perez which was helping him defend against the Ferrari of Sainz.

Hamilton after the Safety Car put his head down in order to try and get into the points and was on the back of Magnussen however, he came on the radio to complain that his car was too slow on the straights and was not making the overtake easy. This however didn’t defeat Hamilton as he stayed on the back of Magnussen and on Lap 9 forced him into a mistake as we see Magnussen cut the chicane and Hamilton was straight on the radio to say that Magnussen gained an advantage, the stewards agreed with Hamilton as they and Magnussen a 10 second penalty. This battle was far from over as on lap 11 Hamilton goes to make a move and Magnussen defends aggressively also hitting Hamilton a bit which Magnussen gets a black and white flag. On Lap 14 Hamilton was able to charge up again and went for another move but again Magnussen broke very late and forced both Hamilton and himself off the track and Tsunoda was able to get past Hamilton due to this while Magnussen was able to stay ahead of the pair. This got Magnussen another 10 second penalty making it a 20 second penalty total.

On Lap 15 we see both Tsunoda and Hamilton ahead of Magnussen finally and Hamilton was pressing Tsunoda now for that final points position in the Sprint Race and on lap 19 Hamilton was able to get past Tsunoda to finish in the points. This was however short lived as the stewards handed Hamilton a drive through penalty for speeding in the pitlane and given that the race has ended that meant an additional 20 seconds added to his final race time which put him down to 16^th place and out of the points.

Further at the front we see Ricciardo drop from Perez’s DRS on lap 9 which meant Sainz had a better chance of overtaking so Ricciardo had to ensure to not make any mistakes and save all the battery power he can to use on the straights. Ricciardo did an amazing job at this as he managed to hold Sainz off for the whole race which the pair were constantly battling and Ricciardo managed to finish in 4^th place in the Sprint Race getting some well deserved points for him and the team while his teammate also got the final point after Hamilton got his penalty.

At the end of the race we saw Max Verstappen take the chequered flag followed by Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez, Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz, Oscar Piastri, Nico Hulkenberg and Yuki Tsunoda form the top 8 for the sprint. Magnussen really managed to keep the stewards on their toes in this race as we see him get another 5 second penalty at the end for track limits totalling his total penalties to 25 seconds.

Heading now into the qualifying for the race tomorrow and in Q1 we see all cars queueing in the pitlane ready to go out as soon as the lights turn green and once it did, they all got going. Apart from a few radio messages complaining about impeding, Q1 was fairly normal with no incidents and in the end, we end up losing Valtteri Bottas, Logan Sargeant, Daniel Ricciardo, Kevin Magnussen and Zhou Guanyu.

Early in Q2 we momentarily see the double Yellow Flags being waved as we see Alex Albon go wide into Turn 17 and had to reverse back on track, this was very quick, and all drivers got going again in the end. For the last runs of Q2, McLaren take the gamble and send Norris out on the mediums but I don’t think Noris had enough time for 2 out laps which was going to put him at risk. Luckily his first run was enough as the drivers below him were not improving significantly and he was through to Q3 as we lose Lance Stroll, Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Alex Albon and Fernando Alonso in Q2.

Q3 got under way and after the first runs we see Max Verstappen on provisional pole with Charles Leclerc very close behind and Carlos Sainz coming in 3^rd. Sainz was noted by the stewards for impeding Nico Hulkenberg at Turn 17 but after a quick review the stewards declared that no further investigation is needed. On the 2^nd and last runs, Mercedes had to opt to send both their drivers out on the mediums as they had run out of new softs while McLaren put Norris back on the softs as he was not making an impact on the mediums. Nearly no one was able to improve their times from the first runs and we end up having Max Verstappen taking pole followed by Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez, Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hulkenberg and Yuki Tsunoda will form the top 10 for the race.

Who do you think will come out on top tomorrow? Will Max be able to sail into the Florida sunset, or will Ferrari and McLaren potentially have an answer for the Rede Bull of Max Verstappen?