Beating Charles Leclerc In Miami GP F1 Race, Max Verstappen: Very Physically Demanding

JAKARTA - The Miami GP Formula 1 (F1) race which took place Monday, May 9 in the morning WIB, was won by Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen. He beat his closest rival, Charles Leclerc.

Max Verstappen finished the race with a time of 1 hour 34 minutes 24,258 seconds. He was 3.786 seconds ahead of the Ferrari driver.

In third place was Charles Leclerc's teammate, Carlos Sainz Jr. He is 8,229 seconds adrift of Max Verstappen.

"What an amazing Grand Prix, very physically demanding. Very happy with this win in Miami, it's been a great week for us," said Max Verstappen after the race, as reported by Antara.

Starting the race from third position, Verstappen made a bold maneuver to overtake Sainz after the first corner on the opening lap. He then took the lead from Leclerc after nine laps.

Since then, the Dutch racer has not been overtaken by his rivals. Leclerc had the opportunity to reclaim the race leadership position after a safety car period following the crash between Norris and Gasly on lap 41. But failed.

"It was a very difficult race physically. We were overwhelmed with the medium tyre and were overtaken, but with the hard tyre we are very competitive," said Leclerc.

"I hope now that we can do better in the next races, but it's been a tight season from the start and that's what we all want to see."

Sergio Perez finished P4 after failing to steal the podium from Sainz in Miami. The Mexican rider is ranked third in the standings with 66 points.

George Russell, who was knocked out in Q2, once again beat team-mate Lewis Hamilton as the two Mercedes drivers finished P5 and P6, capitalizing on a Valtteri Bottas error that crashed into the guardrail for the Alfa Romeo driver to lose his place to P7.

Russell stays in fourth place with 59 points, six points ahead of Sainz, while Hamilton is sixth with 36 points.

Esteban Ocon, who missed qualifying due to an accident in FP3, came back to claim P8 for the Alpine team, followed by teammate Fernando Alonso in P9.

Alexander Albon picked up a second point for Williams after completing a top ten finish.