Red Bull’s Max Verstappen said his win at the Sunshine State was made all the sweeter given his difficult start to the Miami Grand Prix weekend – but he warned the team to keep up the hard work as he moves closer to Charles Leclerc’s lead .
The reigning champion won his second consecutive grand prix, cemented a grand slam at Imola with a win at the inaugural Miami grand prix, wrested polesitter Leclerc from the lead early and held it at the late safety car restart. That came after his car stalled in FP2 and caused a lack of racing, which the Dutchman said was still hurting him in qualifying.
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But after Sunday’s win, Verstappen said: “Yes, of course, it’s a very good comeback. I haven’t even made one [practice] launch, so I didn’t know what to expect at the actual launch. But we got off to a good start and I saw an opportunity to go around the outside [of Sainz] in turn 1, so I tried it. Luckily it worked.
“Then, of course, I wasn’t very happy with this safety car, but of course it’s completely understandable what happened, and of course you can’t be too disappointed because it’s done me well in a few races in the past. I knew it was going to be tough until the end, it was quite physical out there – now we had to go flat out for the next 10 laps! It’s not easy on a circuit like this.”
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Despite his win, Verstappen said Red Bull are still plagued by reliability gremlins and urged the team to eliminate them. Teammate Sergio Perez, who finished fourth, suffered a loss of power early in the race in his pursuit of podium-placed Carlos Sainz.
“We still have problems that we have to solve,” Verstappen continued. “We’re fast but as you can see my Friday was terrible which wasn’t great if you want to have a good weekend. I also think that Checo had some problems in the race, so we have to get through that. We have a lot of potential but we have to make sure it’s reliable.
“We just need to nail down a really positive weekend with no issues. I think of course we had that at Imola, but it’s still a bit of a stroke of luck, too much.”
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Perez had a sensor problem chasing Carlos Sainz that cost him strength
Regardless, Verstappen made history on Sunday with the first-ever Grand Prix win at the Miami International Autodrome. More important to him is the “incredible atmosphere” on the track – and the fact that he is only 19 points behind Leclerc in the overall standings.
“I think it was an incredible atmosphere, really incredibly well organised. Really nice to see that; It’s not easy to organize an event like this. But they did a great job. I had a lot of fun driving around. I think in terms of the track… we can improve in a few areas.
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“But in the race I have to say that sector 1 was quite a lot of fun. I think sector 2 would have been nice if it was a little bit faster and smoother for the F1 car we have now…that [Turn] 14-15 chicane is a tricky combination.
“I mean, it’s another 25 or 26 points, right? But it’s a nice place, that’s for sure – but still there are the same number of points to get.”
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