Max Verstappen stole the show in Miami once again to continue his run as the only winner in Florida.
Red Bull led the field once again in Miami sprint race with Max Verstappen taking the race win followed by Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez.
Although able to challenge the Dutchman into turn one, Leclerc mentioned post race he actively made the decision to be conservative, aware of qualifying later in the day.
Despite this, Max showed the same belief in his car and team that he has shown throughout the season saying he was able to ‘steadily’ build a gap despite the safety car but expressed there’s still work to do for tomorrow.
Max Verstappen’s reaction
Interviewer: “Here we are with sprint race winner in Miami Max Verstappen, congrats on another victory in this format.
“Talk us through it, it looked like the start may have been a little bit of a slow getaway, you had to really push Charles into turn one. How tight was it between you two?”
MV: “I think my engagement wasn’t good at the start so then, of course, I had to squeeze him a bit. Luckily, everything worked into T1.
“We had the safety car just to calm things down a little bit but after that, steadily, we could increase the gap a little bit but it wasn’t entirely perfect so we still have a bit of work to do.
“At least now in the new format, we can still fine tune the car a little bit so hopefully we can improve it a little but for later on in qualifying and especially tomorrow in the race.
“A win is good, I’m happy with that and it gives us a few good points to look at as well to improve.
“We had a massive victory margin in the sprint race in China, it wasn’t quite as big.”
Interviewer: “What kind of information did you gather today that you can apply for the race tomorrow?”
MV: “China felt really good, I mean the car was really, really nice to drive, here it was a bit more difficult for me.
“There are a few more things to improve.”
Charles Leclerc’s reaction
Interviewer: “Great result, P2 in the sprint, lots of fans here in Miami cheering you on.
“Why don’t you talk us through that start first? It looked like you got a great launch and really challenged Max into T1.”
CL: “I had quite a good start and then I was in the inside of T1. Obviously I didn’t want to take too many risks because we’ve got also qualifying later on and if you crash in the sprint, then you probably don’t participate later on.
“We both braked very, very late with Max but eventually he got to keep the position and then I was pushing very hard but in the first few laps they had a bit more pace, then we had a similar degradation.
“Tomorrow it’s a long race so qualifying would be important to be starting as much in the front as possible and then hopefully we can put them under pressure with the strategy.”
Interviewer: “Let’s talk about qualifying then, it’s coming up here, the jobs not done yet today but you were so close yesterday.
“What was learned yesterday and maybe even a little bit today in the sprint that you think you could apply to maybe fight for pole this afternoon?”
CL: “It was obviously very close yesterday. Not many laps in FP1 so hopefully now with the sprint race, I got a bit more laps around this track and I hope we can target for pole.
“That’s the target then, let’s see if we manage to achieve that.”
Sergio Perez’s reaction
Interviewer: “Checo, P3 today, looked liked a bit of a quiet event for you, you got through the mess in T1 and then it was sort of running your own race.”
SP: “Yeah, it was. It was really hard to ger through Daniel in the beginning and once I got through quite quickly but I was three seconds from Charles and given the short duration of the race it was pretty tricky.
“I was getting with two seconds, 1.8, but then it was quite hard to get a little bit closer. Anyway, let’s look forward for the rest of the weekend.”
Interviewer: “Checo, when you come out here, you get one of the biggest cheers from the crowd. What’s it like racing here in Miami?
“You’ve got a ton of supporter, how about this crowd here today?”
SP: “The fans are amazing, it’s really nice to be here with all of them and I really hope I can give them a great rest of the weekend.”
Interviewer: “How about qualifying? What do you think you got tomorrow or this afternoon?”
SP: “I think we will be able to be strong so I definitely look forward to it.”