Max Verstappen converted sprint race pole into victory in the sprint race of the Miami Grand Prix ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
The championship leader extended his advantage at the top of the table with eight points for victory in the sprint race, three seconds ahead of Leclerc.Sergio Perez completed the top three behind the Ferrari driver after overtaking Daniel Ricciardo, who had got ahead of him at the start. Carlos Sainz Jnr was fourth after being unable to pass the RB driver, with Oscar Piastri sixth for McLaren, Nico Hulkenberg in seventh for Haas.
Lewis Hamilton originally claimed the final point in eighth after passing Yuki Tsunoda on the final lap. But the Mercedes driver was hit with a post-race drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane during a Safety Car period. That was converted to a 20-second penalty which That dropped Hamilton to 16th place and promoted Tsunoda to the final point in eighth.
Hamilton spent much of the race scrapping with Kevin Magnussen who was hit with four separate time penalties totally 35 seconds for his antics. These were three 10-second penalties for leaving the track and gaining an advantage and one five second penalty for four track limits infringements. The swathe of sanctions demoted the Haas driver from tenths to 18th and last.
Pierre Gasly and Logan Sargeant moved up to ninth and tenth, respectively, as a result of the penalties for Hamilton and Magnussen, but missed out on points.
Lando Norris retired after being the innocent victim of a first corner clash after Hamilton dove to the inside at turn one and hit Fernando Alonso, causing a chain reaction that left the McLaren damaged on the side of the track and damage to both Alonso and Lance Stroll’s Aston Martins. Norris and Stroll retired from their damage, while Alonso fell to the rear after pitting. The stewards decided that no investigation was necessary for the incident.
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2024 Miami Grand Prix
- McLaren had superior pace before Verstappen’s damage in Miami – Norris
- Sainz ‘struggles to understand’ why he got penalty when Perez didn’t
- Alonso’s unusual brake problem and more unheard Miami team radio
- McLaren’s Miami upgrade success points to even stronger form in coming races
- Norris expects more wins this year and believes “100%” in 2025 title bid
Retired (@jeff1s)
4th May 2024, 17:54
Logan Sargeant finishing 10th for nothing
ykiki (@ykiki)
4th May 2024, 19:06
Happy to see him have a nice, clean run today.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
4th May 2024, 17:54
I’m more intrigued whether Kmag collects enough points on his licence to earn a race ban in a single race. That was an impressive display in taking one for the team!
..
4th May 2024, 17:58
I am intrigued, you can wreck 3 people at the start and get away with it.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
4th May 2024, 18:02
I think Hamilton got away with it because the two Astons had already collided before Hamilton arrived.
Had they not already started the crash then Ham definitely would have gotten a penalty.
Jere (@jerejj)
4th May 2024, 18:12
@brightlampshade No, Hamilton made the very first contact or at least the Astons didn’t seem to have had any physical contact before on the replays.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
4th May 2024, 18:21
Nope, just watched the replay on youtube to remind myself and the Astons collided before Hamilton arrived. Can even see bits of floor flying off before Hamilton arrives to finish the job.
Mr A
4th May 2024, 18:21
Watch again Jere, Astons hit eachother before Hamilton arrived.
Gusm.ai
4th May 2024, 18:43
at about the 0:50 timestamp (x.25) on the highlights one can see:
1) Stroll swerves right.
2) Alonso didnt swerve engouh to avoid contact with Stroll
3) Hamilton contacts Alonso, pushing Alonso and Stroll onto Norris.
Things that one can speculate:
1) Alonso didnt avoided contact to Stroll because he saw Hamilton coming down.
2) Maybe Norris wouldnt avoid touching Stroll front left tyre anyway.
Conclusion:
Hamilton move was too aggressive and would resulted in nothing, hadnt the AMs already got entagled. If Hamilton only contacted Alonso, a penalty should be given, unless first lap carfuffle supercedes everything.
Toncho
4th May 2024, 20:28
Well, Norris and Alonso seem to disagree and it was quite clear that Hamilton was not able to make the corner anyway.
Anyway , lately penalties are a joke and seem like a total lottery.
Still don’t get the one of Alonso in Australia (Russel himself admitted it was his fault), or the one between Sainz and Alonso. Today, the first ten seconds for Magnussen don’t make sense either as Hamilton was not really in the position to overtake there.
I see drivers are also completely confused and taking the things into their own hands specially in the sprint races.
BMW P85 V10
4th May 2024, 20:39
If they had penalized Hamilton straight away, as they should have done after speeding in the Pit Lane the Magnussen/ Hamilton fight had never taken place.
Are Stwewards waiting to make easy discissions to keep the races more interresting?
Aquila_GD
4th May 2024, 17:58
Magnussen really deserves a race ban for his antics today. This was really silly and bothering on very dangerous driving. Someone needs to talk to him and the Haas team about his driving.
This is Formula 1 not wacky races.
Jere (@jerejj)
4th May 2024, 18:00
Indeed. Such driving has zero benefits for the team.
Oople
4th May 2024, 18:00
In the eyes of KMag and Haas, it’s probably “worth it” even with a race ban.
+2 points increases their advantage over the teams behind them.
Jere (@jerejj)
4th May 2024, 18:13
Oople Expect they lost one because of his driving, so unworthy.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th May 2024, 6:20
You can argue if not for the extreme defense magnussen put up, it could’ve happened that hamilton would’ve overtaken both haas cars, and they’d have ended up with 1 point, in this case 2.
Edvaldo
4th May 2024, 18:06
Dude, he’s been doing these things since he joined Haas. Or even before that, can’t say i paid too much attention to him at his Renault days.
He knew he wasn’t scoring, was probably collecting some penalties, but the team would get some points with Hulk.
Haas seems to encourage these tactics, so, what can one do?
Jere (@jerejj)
4th May 2024, 18:22
Edvaldo Although, he would’ve been scoring had he bothered to stay on track, in which case he would’ve benefitted from Hamilton’s time penalty, so he threw away a point for the team.
MichaelN
4th May 2024, 18:39
Drive throughs and then race bans.
Like he said, he did it all on purpose: “All the penalties were well-deserved – no doubt about it – but I had to play the game again.”
Edvaldo
4th May 2024, 18:43
This wouldn’t solve anything when in the end of the day he’s Haas’s greatest weapon.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th May 2024, 6:22
Indeed, you can’t penalise someone who’s out of the points in a meaningful way, you need to start understand when there’s a collusion and give out team penalties for 1 driver’s behaviour.
Thinking back to 2021, what’s stopping perez from taking out hamilton to help verstappen, or bottas from taking out verstappen to help hamilton? Giving a penalty to the offending driver isn’t enough.
Ben
4th May 2024, 18:12
+1 I like to see drivers defending but that was just way too much. Cutting the first chicane gave him a huge advantage as it took Hamilton 3-4 laps to catch back up. The first overtake attempt was done. Hamilton got the cut back and Kmag just drove off the track and bashed him out the way. The second attempt was also done. Again Kmag just decided to go straight and fully block Hamilton from turning in.
Honestly some of the worst driving I’ve seen. He should get a penalty for cutting the chicane. A penalty for both incidents and a penalty for track limits. Hopefully he gets some points too to calm him down
PacificPR (@streydt)
4th May 2024, 18:12
I once again really enjoyed watching Magnussen defend. Some proper race craft. But I guess for some racing is all about those smooth DRS passes..
Jere (@jerejj)
4th May 2024, 18:21
@streydt I don’t mind great defending, but Magnussen’s was simply overboard & even more so than in Jeddah.
Leaving the track & gaining an advantage, forcibly pushing back ahead in wrestling-style, or forcing off track aren’t great or clean racing.
PacificPR (@streydt)
4th May 2024, 18:34
Magnussen kept it clean. He wasn’t doing anything too dangerous. It didn’t end in a crash. I don’t see why he would not be allowed to race as he did. If we are going to have rules against defensive driving – I am out of here (F1 that is)! Just look at the MotoGP races, if they had the F1 stewards – all riders would have been banned from racing after the first rounds.
Edvaldo
4th May 2024, 18:41
he went off track and came back pushing Hamilton. That’s an unsafe rejoining.
He also pushed Hamilton off the track by purposedly not attempting to make a corner and blocking him in the process.
It was the only thing worth of note on this dull race, but some of it was illegal.
drmouse (@drmouse)
4th May 2024, 20:11
If nothing else, it’s against the rules. Whether you think the roles are correct or not, he broke them. He also admitted that he did so completely on purpose, knowing his actions were illegal, as a tactic to aid his teammate. That’s a true professional foul and worthy of a very harsh punishment in itself.
MichaelN
4th May 2024, 18:35
He cut multiple corners, pushed others off (and went off himself in the process); that’s not race craft, that’s the kind of stuff that belongs on Xbox.
ykiki (@ykiki)
4th May 2024, 19:03
Actually, no, pushing others off doesn’t belong in Xbox either.
Mr A
4th May 2024, 18:22
How was it dangerous?
It was over the line from a sporting perspective and rightly penalised but don’t get all dramatic saying it was dangerous. Nobody was in danger.
MichaelN
4th May 2024, 18:34
Yeah, that was horrible driving all around. This whole team seems to think being an online meme is a good thing. It’s not.
Paul
4th May 2024, 17:59
Yet another incident for the Strolling Ball with assistance from Lewis Wreckington.
I am glad the end result was that Lewis missed out on the last point (due to the speeding penalty) after the stewards decided to not do anything about that first corner. Justice served in the end.
That said, something needs to be done about drivers doing a Magnussen and just totally going bezerk on penalties.
Excellent drive from Riccardo. Maybe there really was something g wrong with his old chassis,
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th May 2024, 6:25
This comment can’t be reported btw, I’m guessing someone took offense at the way you called hamilton, there’s no report button here and there is in all other comments.
Jere (@jerejj)
4th May 2024, 17:59
A good sprint, especially Ricciardo’s defense, while Magnussen went overboard again, three times gaining advantage off-track with the latter two helping him to overtake.
Given Hamilton’s looming time penalty, he would’ve gained a point, but instead zero & one fewer for the team, so such driving has zero benefits for them in the long term.
Hamilton’s lunge into T1 was always going to fail & that unfortunately hampered the Astons & Norris.
I don’t quite get Alonso’s late drive-through, though, as he didn’t get such a penalty.
Lastly, Ricciardo’s & Magnussen’s defense drives show that the DRS activation zone starting points on the two longest full-throttle sections should’ve been shifted back towards the original starting points by 50 or at least 25 meters, if not wholly back to the original length.
Aquila_GD
4th May 2024, 18:05
Hamilton Penalty was for speeding in pit lane under safety car. His lunge in T1 was actually great aggressive driving (something I think he needs to do more of) and was not penalised. It was a legal move
Riccard
4th May 2024, 18:20
It wasn’t penalised, but it wasn’t “great” either. He carried so much speed into the corner that he couldn’t make the apex, locked up, and caused a collision.
The stewards seem to have decided that even good drivers make mistakes, and the first corner is often difficult, so there’s no penalty. But the lack of a penalty that doesn’t mean losing control and hitting people is in any sense “great driving”.
If anyone ever crashes into your car after failing to make a corner, I’m sure you’ll agree!
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th May 2024, 6:27
It’s great driving in the sense “take out others and benefit from it”, like silverstone 2021, it’s not great driving in the fairness\sportmanship sense ofc.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th May 2024, 6:27
sportsmanship*
Ben-Hur (@ben-hur)
5th May 2024, 17:25
Yes, and the WWII German blitzkrieg was great aggressive fighting
AlexS
4th May 2024, 18:16
Fifth
Mr A
4th May 2024, 18:24
Norris didn’t “crash out” he was taken out.
Words matter!
Quite an eventful race, I thought. K-Mag again showing how pointless the additional time pens are when your first one has already dropped you out the points.
ykiki (@ykiki)
4th May 2024, 19:05
Though at the end of the season, if tied on points, the non-points finishes come into play.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th May 2024, 6:29
Not in a realistic scenario: almost everyone gets points in a season nowadays, no one cares about 16th place battle in the championship, and the chance THAT one outside the points result is the tie breaker in the end is almost non existent.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th May 2024, 6:30
Also they’re likely increasing the points paying position to 12, making it even less likely someone ends up at 0.
Dex
4th May 2024, 20:13
I think that Haas should be penalized for the way they utilize Magnussen race after race, whenever Hülkenberg is inside the points. He’s not doing this for himself, but for the team (in fact it makes him look bad in comparison to his teammate). They keep scoring points this way, and it’s cute sometimes, but it never ends… Magnussen keeps doing whatever it takes until the end of the race and keeps collecting meaningless penalties.
I can’t believe I’m complaining here, as I’m always for hard racing and against whining and complaining (and Hamilton is the champ there in fact), but I don’t like seeing this as a regular strategy. For Hamilton it was karma (in a way) for the start of the race where he avoided well deserved penalty, but it wasn’t Magnussen’s place to right that wrong. And it’s unfair to Haas’ rivals in the championship.
It’s fun to watch for the first few laps, but come on…
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th May 2024, 6:32
Yes, I agree, there should be team penalties when it’s clear a driver is sacrificing himself doing illegal stuff to help the team mate.
Again, take 2021, what stops bottas or perez from taking out verstappen or hamilton so that their team mate can win the driver’s championship? Even if you get banned from a race, that’s a worthwhile trade, as you’re never gonna win the title with bottas or perez, what matters is taking out the number 1 driver.