Duke University basketball player Paolo Banchero, “I mean these cars go so fast like, you can’t even get a good video when they go by but, I love it here, it’s dope.”“Yeah, I mean this is the first F1 in Miami right so I’m definitely here for that, I was at the qualifiers yesterday, I just, yeah, loving the whole atmosphere.”Leclerc, who led the championship by 27 points at the start of Sunday, had won in the season-opener in Bahrain and the third race in Australia.
But the Dutch Red Bull driver passed Sainz just after the standing start. He then tracked down Leclerc, caught him on Lap 8 and passed the Monaco driver on the first turn of Lap 9. On Lap 41 of 57, Pierre Gasly in an AlphaTauri and Lando Norris in his McLaren made contact to bring out a safety car. The crash sent some teams scrambling to pit and move to different tyre compounds.
Leclerc kept the pressure on Verstappen over the next seven laps until Verstappen pulled away over the final three laps.