Miami - Sprint Race

The drama of the Miami Sprint Race began even before the lights first went out as before the sprint had ever gotten underway, Ocon was given a 10-second penalty for hitting the Ferrari of Leclerc as he drove out of the Alpine garage. He needed a new front wing. Another piece of important pre-race news was that Albon, who qualified 20th, would start from the pit lane as his team opted to make some set-up changes to his car ahead of the race. 

The race was disrupted soon after it started with a yellow flag, quickly followed by a safety car. Both were caused by a series of unfortunate events right at turn 1. It all began with Norris and Hamilton driving on both sides of the two Aston Martins that started the race right next to each other. On the left of the 'sandwich', Hamilton and Alonso made contact, which in turn put the Spaniard into the car of his teammate. Stroll drove into the McLaren, pushing it off track. The incident resulted in Stroll and Norris retiring from the race and Alonso reporting a puncture in his tire. 

Right before the safety car was brought out, Ricciardo overtook Perez, finding himself in third, and right after it ended, the Red Bull driver took his place back, securing a spot in the top three. This put the RB right in front of Sainz, starting what would turn out to be a race-long fight for P4. Another battle brewed a but further down the grid, with Hamilton and Magnussen both wanting to finish the race in P8. The fight turned aggressive, especially on the side of Magnussen as the driver racked up 30 seconds of penalties throughout the 19-lap race for cutting a chicane and leaving the track to gain an unfair advantage. After the race, Magnussen admitted that while he usually does not like such a brute way of racing, he did what needed to be done for his teammate to score points for the team. 

The sprint ended with Verstappen, Leclerc, and Perez on the podium. Ricciardo held onto 4th, despite Sainz's best efforts to improve his position. Piastri and Hulkenberg, 6th and 7th respectively, went through the race rather smoothly, both securing points for their teams. After Hamilton's battle with Magnussen, he entered another, this time with Tsunoda. It ended with the Mercedes overtaking the RB on the very last lap and finishing P8. It looked like the Brit would close off the point-scoring positions until he was hit with a post-race, 20-second penalty for speeding in the pitman during the early safety car period. This pushed him all the way to 16th and put Tsunoda at 8th. 

Order of the grid

1. Max Verstappen

2. Charles Leclerc

3. Sergio Perez

4. Daniel Ricciardo

5. Carlos Sainz

6. Oscar Piastri

7. Nico Hulkenberg

8. Yuki Tsunoda

9. Pierre Gasly

10. Logan Sargeant

11. Zhou Guanyu

12. George Russel

13. Alex Albon

14. Valtteri Bottas

15. Esteban Ocon

16. Lewis Hamilton

17. Fernando Alonso 

18. Kevin Magnussen

DNF Lance Stroll and Lando Norris