Max Verstappen was able to show his and Red Bull’s pedigree in a calm and controlled win from 9th. In doing so, the title race has swung in his favour as he increases the gap in the championship from 6 to 14 points. In a relatively quiet race in the 305, incident wise, most teams opted for a one stop Medium-Hard stint. With the rain a no show, there wasn’t much action at the front of the field. Let us dive into the data to understand the race pace of the top teams and the midfield.

Race Pace for the Top 4 Teams

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen were the only drivers from the top teams to start on the Hard. Doing so would ensure a pace and stop differential which would be enough to guarantee clean air and propel them past the midfield and back into their natural positions in the top 8.

Key Battle: Max Verstappen Vs Sergio Perez

• Max Verstappen has become an expert at tyre conservation just like his teammate. As can be seen in the Race Trace plot, Max has the lowest lap times and most consistent of traces on average. • His teammate was on the opposite strategy (Medium-Hard). There was a period (laps 20-33) where both drivers were pretty even on lap time, the fresher Hards of Perez able to keep Verstappen’s old Mediums honest. • As Mx was approaching his pit window, he started to lean on the tyres harder and was quicker than Perez. He opened the gap from 14s to 18s. It was this stint that guaranteed him victory.

The Best of the Rest

As mentioned in our Race Pace Predictions article. Alpines looked the most competitive from the midfield while McLaren showed signs of struggling. This was what ended up playing out as Alpine had a good weekend to finish P8 & P9 and McLaren’s disastrous season continues with a P17 & P19 finish. Kevin Magnussen drove brilliantly to finish P10 and give Haas points at home.

Key Insights

• Alpine seem to be at the head of the midfield now with their last aero updates. • The rest of the midfield is still very tight, with Alfa Romeo, Haas, Williams and AlphaTauri covered by 0.2s of average race lap time. • McLaren, who looked good in Baku, had another horrendous race in Miami. They had a double Q1 elimination. They did decide to try something different, with a start on the Soft compound tyres which did not end up working. Their day went from bad to worse as Nyck De Vries rear ended Norris at T1 and Oscar Piastri had a Brake By Wire issue costing him time throughout the race.