F1: Verstappen dominates in Miami despite late Ferrari push

Reigning Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen won the inaugural Miami Grand Prix on Sunday after a spectacular performance in front of a star-studded crowd in the new street circuit built around the Miami Dolphins' Hard Rock Stadium. Championship leader Charles Leclerc succumbed on track against the Red Bull once more despite starting with his Ferrari in pole position.

Everything went in Ferrari's way on Saturday's qualifying session, with Leclerc and teammate Carlos Sainz locking out the front row of the grid. However, it took only two turns into the opening lap for Verstappen to get past Sainz to take second place.

Leclerc had a better start than his teammate, taking the lead from pole and maintaining the position throughout the opening laps. However, he was never able to shake Verstappen off his tail, and as soon as DRS was enabled, it was only a matter of time before the Red Bull driver made his move. By the ninth lap, Verstappen overtook Leclerc cleanly thanks to the Red Bull's clear pace advantage.

Leclerc could not keep up with the leading Red Bull, and an eight-second gap opened between the two front runners before a safety car was deployed in the closing stages following a crash between Pierre Gasly's AlphaTauri and Lando Norris' McLaren.

At the re-start, Leclerc was breathing down the back of Verstappen's car, and it looked like the Ferrari had the pace advantage despite having older tyres. However, it was not enough to get past and Leclerc chose to cut his losses to finish second instead of taking an unnecessary risk like he did at Imola. Verstappen won the race and continued his 100% record of victories for every race he finished so far this season. He has now won three races over Leclerc's two, but the Ferrari driver still holds a 19-point lead in the championship after finishing with points in every race so far. Verstappen meanwhile, retired in both Bahrain and Australia.

Red Bull Racing will be happy to see both their cars finish after facing reliability issues on Friday with some overheating seen in Verstappen's car.

Meanwhile, Ferrari's Carlos Sainz will be relieved to break his chain of bad luck, finishing third after crashing out in Italy in the opening lap. He also had a big shunt on Friday, but managed to qualify in the front row. Despite being overtaken by Verstappen at the start, he was at least able to keep the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez behind him.

Elsewhere, Lewis Hamilton is extremely disappointed that Mercedes teammate George Russell finished in front of him once more despite qualifying several places behind. Russell was the best of the rest in fifth place after a long stint on hard tyres allowed him to work his way higher up the grid. A good decision to wait for a safety car period then allowed him to keep track position and overtake a frustrated Hamilton who let his feelings known on the team radio.

"The strategy's not been kind to me, man," Hamilton said, despite the fact that no one could have predicted the safety car that gave Russell the cheap pit stop.

Meanwhile, fans were happy to see Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas ahead of both Mercedes cars after the safety car period, but he squandered bragging rights by going wide and letting both Silver Arrows through.

The safety car period was triggered by a massive crash between Gasly and Lando Norris, which sent the McLaren into the wall. The incident took place just shortly after Fernando Alonso's Alpine also hit Gasly, resulting in a penalty for the Spaniard.

Elsewhere, Alex Albon finished in the points for the Williams once more, after Mick Schumacher missed out on his first Formula 1 points thanks to a careless shunt with mentor Sebastian Vettel's Aston Martin.

In the end, the bottomline is that the battle is intensifying up front between the Red Bulls and the Ferraris, with the Italian team desperate to improve after seeing the Red Bulls get past their reliability issues.