Max Verstappen finishes in fourth place at Miami Grand Prix; Piastri victorious again
Max Verstappen finished fourth in the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday. The Red Bull driver was unable to build on his pole position and ended up finishing behind the race winner Oscar Piastri and second place Lando Norris of McLaren and the Mercedes of George Russell.
Verstappen’s first race since becoming a father started well. The Dutch driver was just about able to keep Norris and Kimi Antonelli behind him in the first few corners to keep the lead in the race.
As has often been the case between the two drivers, Norris claimed that Verstappen pushed him off the track during their battle in the first turn of the race. “What am I supposed to do, drive into the wall?” The British driver said to the McLaren team after the incident.
It was Oscar Piastri’s turn to put Verstappen under pressure, and the Australian driver was doing a better job of bothering and sticking with the reigning champion than Norris and Antonelli. This also brought the desired result in the 14th lap when Piastri was able to capitalize off of a mistake by Verstappen to finally take the lead after an exciting battle between the two drivers. “Fucking brakes, man. Honestly, useless,” Verstappen said after he had lost the position.
The duel, which lasted several laps, gave Lando Norris the chance to bridge the gap, meaning that he was able to put Verstappen under pressure right after Piastri had taken the lead.
This again turned into a rough battle between the two drivers. Norris went past Verstappen in the 17th lap but was quickly told by McLaren to give the position back to Verstappen because he had gone off the track while overtaking him. Norris did so, but it made little difference as he passed Verstappen again a lap later to climb to second.
At this point, it became clear that Verstappen was unable to keep up with the two McLaren cars and was more in line with Antonelli and Russell behind him.
Most of the rest of the race saw Verstappen attempting to catch Russell for the last podium place, but he was unable to get close enough to take the spot in the end.
Verstappen is now third in the F1 Drivers’ Standings with 99 points. He is six points ahead of George Russell, who is fourth while being 16 points and 32 points behind Norris and Piastri, respectively.
The next F1 race is the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on May 18.
