Updated:
May 8, 2023 12:20 am
Max Verstappen claimed victory after a superb drive from P9 on the grid. Yesterday’s qualifying didn’t quite go to plan for him due to poor timing of a red flag, therefore meaning he started P9 as he hadn’t got a lap in but managed to push forward despite the grid position, and with a superb strategy, he managed to cross the line ahead of his teammate and extend his championship lead.
Despite the somewhat action packed qualifying, it was overall yet again another particularly lame weekend for F1. Isn’t it convenient how in the last two races they’ve made changes and it just made the racing worse? For this Miami race week and for the race in Baku, DRS Zones were shortened in both the races, this effectively meant it would now be more difficult to overtake as there was less having greater speeds.
These shortened zones were added out of nowhere for no reason too, it seems to be the F1 association needs to leave things as they were and let the racers race! Back to back race-weeks are supposed to provide entertainment, not snooze fests.
Comeback Kings
Glancing over the lame race, it seemed to be a positive drive for Lewis Hamilton. Both Hamilton and Verstappen had poor qualifying sessions with Hamilton qualifying P13 going out in Q2, and Verstappen qualifying P9.
But with a bit of confidence and no pressure, it shows what the drivers can do. With Lewis himself and the team not having any faith in the cars performance, they didn’t expect to get any points. With a super drive and other cars struggling, Lewis crossed the line in P6 scoring a valuable 8 points. Russell also had a good race finishing P4 ahead of both Ferrari’s.
Both Verstappen and Hamilton really showing their skills and getting stuck in to get the best results they could for their team, a good achievement for Mercedes considering they looked poor throughout the entirety of the weekend, and a solid drive from Verstappen to help his Championship hopes.
Charles Leclerc Nightmare Weekend
Charles Leclerc suffered severely this week throughout all days. It all started on Friday in FP2 as he had his first crash of the weekend in Turn 7 after a snap of over-steer, this brought out the first and only red flag of the session.
Little did we know this would also be the start of a dismal upcoming weekend for him.
On to Saturday where Leclerc had his second crash of the week which would happen in Q3 on the final run. After a poor first run he was in P7 and with the final lap was hoping to push right up to the top if not at least near.
Unfortunately for him, Déjà vu would occur as he had another accident very similar to the first one which would bring out a red flag again which also marked the end of qualifying.
Starting Sunday’s race in P7 had Ferrari fans hoping that he would gain some positions of the start and fight towards the front, but unfortunately for him and them, it was just a struggle for Leclerc to overtake throughout the race, perhaps it was the shortened DRS Zones or maybe it was a lack of confidence in the car.
Whatever the issue was he did not have as much pace as the team would’ve liked and finished P7 in the end. So where he started he ended.
Walking away with 6 points isn’t the end of the world but he would always look for more. Ferrari currently sit 4th in the constructors standings on 78 points compared to Mercedes’ 96 who sit in 3rd place.
Ferrari will look for better pace next weekend and hopefully a better weekend overall, but it won’t just be Ferrari and their fans, it will be the entire viewership hoping for some more entertaining racing.
The next race we head over to Italy to race in the city of Imola at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix. Hopefully some entertaining racing is waiting to happen but only time will tell.
What did you think about the Miami Grand Prix?
