F1 race results: Max Verstappen wins Miami GP from P9 on grid (2024)

His team-mate Sergio Perez led from pole position, running medium tyres like the majority of the field, while Verstappen started ninth on hards after his qualifying woes restricted him to ninth on the grid.

As expected, Verstappen worked his way through the field, and led the middle stages of the race after Perez pitted. After Verstappen stopped, he rejoined just behind Perez, but quickly passed his team-mate to ensure his third victory of the year.

2023 F1 Miami Grand Prix results

How the 2023 F1 Miami Grand Prix unfolded

Perez held his pole position advantage into Turn 1, leading ahead of Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) and Carlos Sainz (Ferrari). Behind them, Pierre Gasly (Alpine) and George Russell (Mercedes) passed Kevin Magnussen (Haas) to run fourth and fifth respectively. Further back, Lando Norris (McLaren) was tagged from behind by Nyck de Vries (AlphaTauri) at the first corner, dropping them to the tail of the field.

Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) passed Magnussen for sixth at Turn 11, while Verstappen stayed in ninth on lap one, having started on the hard tyre. But he leapt ahead of both Leclerc and Magnussen at the start of lap 4 to run sixth, with Magnussen taking advantage to vault back in front of Leclerc as they briefly ran three-wide.

Perez pulled clear of the DRS range of Alonso out front, while Sainz ran a close third. Verstappen outbraked Russell into Turn 17 on lap 8 and repeated the move on Gasly a lap later to take fourth. Russell also passed Gasly a few corners later, at Turn 1 at the start of lap 10.

Verstappen was 4.6s behind leader Perez at this point and set about closing the gap to Sainz. Verstappen DRS-ed past Sainz into Turn 11 on lap 14 and repeated the move on Alonso a lap later to make it a Red Bull 1-2 by lap 15 – with the lead gap already down to 3.7s.

In the battle for best of the rest, Sainz was right on Alonso’s tail when he pitted on 19 – locking up his brakes as he entered the pitlane –and rejoined in heavy traffic. He had to battle past Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Nico Hulkenberg(Haas), but was pinged for speeding in the pitlane anyway, and received a 5s penalty.

Perez was the first Red Bull to pit on lap 21, with a 2.2-second stop that allowed Verstappen to lead. Alonso pitted from second on lap 25, having extended his stint on mediums, rejoining behind Sainz on the road, but running ahead with his penalty taken into account.

Alonso passed Sainz anyway, at Turn 11 just before half distance, and moved ahead of the long-running Esteban Ocon (Alpine) a couple of laps later to reclaim third. Russell came into the frame again, passing Sainz for fourth on lap 38.

Verstappen proved faster on much older tyres than Perez was on new hards, and pitted on lap 46 – although his stop was a relatively slow 3.1s – and Max rejoined behind his team-mate on fresh mediums. But Perez was on hard tyres that had 25 laps on them, and although he tried his best to defend, Verstappen passed him with 10 laps to go at Turn 1 and pulled away to win by over 5s.

Alonso finished a distant third, ahead of Russell and Sainz. Hamilton surged to sixth in the closing stages, passing Leclerc and Gasly. Ocon and Magnussen rounded out the point scorers.

2023 F1 Miami Grand Prix fastest laps

2023 F1 Miami Grand Prix tyre strategy