WELCOME TO MIAMI
After the long anticipation, Formula one was back this weekend and what a race it gave us!
Landing in the USA, F1, their teams and drivers always promise us one thing – some of the coolest and fun liveries along with special helmets. Mercades once again had the internet talking, revealing their purple race suits for the weekend. For their debut home race, Cadillac revamped their livery design to feature the American flag half toned over the back of the car. VCARB, who in my personal opinion always pull through with some of the best designs, showed off their yellow car inspired by the new release of the ‘Red bull summer edition’ drink. Along with these liveries drivers themselves added their own touch to the Miami weekend with their helmets, Max Verstappen’s pink coloured helmet was my personal favourite.
A week ahead of Miami, the FIA decided that Free practice 1 would be extended to 90 minutes, this decision was made due to the recognition of the gap since the last Grand Prix and recently announced regulatory and technical adjustments. Miami also operates under the sprint race format meaning 2 practice sessions would already be cut. During practice Charles Lecerc topped the grid, followed by Verstappen and Piastri.
It was soon onto Sprint Qualifying which saw a big switch up in the pack order, Lando Norris finally breaking the Mercedes dominance by claiming pole position. Antonelli slid into P2 with Oscar finishing the top 3. An unexpected qualifier was Franco Colapinto, not only putting his Alpine above his teammate for the first time but a Q3 appearance and best quali ever in P8.
The sprint race saw lots of on track action, before the race started Nico’s Audi lit up on fire which had him ruled out to line up. We watched as old rivals, Max and Lewis went wheel to wheel fighting over positions, a silver arrows battle and many striking moves. Lando took the win with ease from pole position alongside teammate Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Leclerc. Great to see the Mclaren boys back up the top again.
Lineup for Sundays race had Kimi dominate to achieve 3 back to back pole positions for the feature race. Max and Charles were in the grid spots behind and Franco made P8 once again! A moment that came from the pits was Kimi quoting the Kimi that came before him (Kimi Raikkonen). ‘Bwoah, that was close’ Antonelli said as he weaved around his teammate whilst exiting his pit box.
As an Australian F1 fan, waking up at 6am to watch the Miami Grand Prix was a win, so when the statement that the race would be moved back 3 hours…let’s just say I wasn’t the happiest to open up my alarm app; but I’m committed and like everyone, haven’t had f1 to watch for a month, so up at 2:45am I waited for lights out.
and there was so much chaos from the start, Max falls back into the midfield after spinning and saving himself, Kimi goes out wide and Charles snatches the lead. Kimi starts to bite back at Charles to take back 1st. On lap 6 came disaster for Hadjar and Gasly, Isack clipped the wall sending him into the barriers, such a small yet annoying mistake that had him out of the race, the young Frenchman taking his anger out on the steering wheel of his RedBull. Meanwhile on that same lap Pierre was rolled upside down and over on the side of the wall in an awkward position after Lawson ran into him, resulting in a safety car being deployed. Both drivers were confirmed to be ok.
On the first 15 laps the race had seen 3 different leaders, Kimi, Charles and Lando. Race control had their work cut out for them with penalties and overviews coming out left, right and centre. Kimi crossed the chequered flag in P1 with Mclaren’s Norris and Piastri behind completing the podium. Williams got double points, Colapinto had his best finish and both Lando and Max moved up in the championship leaderboard.
Post race the FIA handed Charles Leclerc a 20 second time penalty, after finishing p6 he has now been demoted to p8. Max Verstappen also received a 10 second penalty but because of the gap to the driver behind he stayed clear of any movement in points.
Kimi now sits 20 points ahead of Russell in the WDC championship. Congrats Kimi for another win!
What was your favourite part about the Miami Grand Prix, tell us at @pitlanepresss on Instagram!
With love, T x
