Furious F1 sprint in Miami: crash at the start and brilliantly dirty defense by Magnussen
Evgeniy Kustov May 4, 2024, 19:55 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
Verstappen won again, but the main protagonists were Ricciardo, who finished fourth, and the Dane from Haas, who accumulated a lot of fines.
A major incident occurred even before the start of the sprint race: the Alpin mechanics carelessly released Esteban Ocon from the pit lane to the pit lane and the Frenchman broke the front wing of the rear wheel of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari. The Monegasque’s wheel held up, but Ocon received a 10-second penalty even before the start. We also noted that Alexander Albon started from the pit lane due to changes to the suspension settings.
The exit itself was also an emergency: both Aston Martin drivers and Lando Norris were injured. The McLaren driver was on the outside of the corner, Stroll was to the right, Alonso was even further to the right and then Lewis Hamilton dived in, deciding to “dive-bomb”! Obviously, in the first corner there was not enough space for four cars: Stroll ended up in the pit and knocked out Norris. However, Lance himself retired to the pits with his car damaged. Alonso suffered a puncture and finished 18th and last after his pit stop. As for Hamilton, he let Magnussen pass, who immediately jumped from 14th position to eighth.
At the front, Verstappen confidently repelled Leclerc’s attack, and Ricciardo temporarily moved into third place; Perez quickly pushed him back as the safety car left the track. But Sainz and Piastri could not quickly overtake Daniel: the RB driver remained in the top four even at half the distance!
The main battle during the sprint was between Magnussen and Hamilton: the Briton did not have enough speed on the straights to overtake the Haas! Furthermore, Kevin acted harshly as always, even once he came into contact.
Alas for the Dane, his powerful defense turned out to be meaningless: for cutting the route while defending, he received a 10-second penalty, and then received another similar penalty! However, Hamilton “responded” to this with an investigation into possible speeding in the pit lane, which could have pushed Yuki Tsunoda into the top 8. In general, Magnussen assembled a real train: all the drivers up to the position 15 received the right to DRS, only Bottas, Ocon and Alonso crashed.
On lap 14, Magnussen and Hamilton had such a fierce duel that they both ended up missing the chicane after the long straight. Upon returning to the track, Hamilton’s Mercedes managed to overtake Tsunoda. After that, it seems that Kevin’s Haas “ran out of tires”: he let Yuki and Lewis pass in unison, as if accepting that there would be no points.
If we return to the leaders, the first three were boring: Verstappen created a gap of two and a half seconds on Leclerc, and Pérez, after overtaking Ricciardo, did not rush to chase the Ferrari, that’s how they finished.
But Ricciardo continued to slow down Sainz and Piastri, sometimes provoking attacks by the McLaren driver against the Spaniard, without success. In the end, Carlos launched a final attack on the RB driver, but achieved nothing: a brilliant fourth position for the Australian. Even less will be said about the imminent end of my career.
Hulkenberg finished confidently in seventh position; Again, unknowingly, he was helped by his teammate, who slowed down everyone behind him. Hamilton, in the end, was still ahead of Tsunoda in the fight for eighth place, but then received a 10-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane. So two RB drivers got into the points and Lewis finished only 16th on the scoreboard.
Logan Sargent, taking into account the penalties of Hamilton and Magnussen, rose to tenth place (the American did a great job at the start), while Kevin himself, taking into account all the penalties, finished 18th and last. Well, but the Haas pilot performed the most spectacular aerobatics of the day. But at this rate, Magnussen will soon receive a disqualification for too many penalty points.
The Miami Grand Prix race weekend continues. Saturday’s qualifying starts at 23:00 Moscow time.
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Suárez and Sainz faced each other at the F1 Grand Prix in Miami. Photo
