Verstappen kicks off Miami F1 weekend with sprint race win
Champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull faced no difficulties as he kicked off the weekend at the Miami Formula One Grand Prix with a win in Saturday's sprint race.
The Dutchman held on to his position at the start, while Charles Leclerc of Ferrari was pressured by Sergio Perez in the other Red Bull, but remained second.
Racing was cut short as the safety car was deployed before the end of the first lap after the McLaren of Lando Norris went off the track following contact in an incident involving the Aston Martin cars of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso and the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton.
Once the safety car left the track, Verstappen had no issues in retaining his lead and eventually cruising to victory.
Despite having another easy day at work, Verstappen said the sprint "wasn't entirely perfect."
"We still have some work to do and at least with the new format we can still fine-tune the car a little bit for qualifying. But a win is good - there are some things to improve," he said.
Leclerc said he didn't want to take too many risks, but was glad to get a few more laps around the track after completing only three laps in the sole practice session on Friday.
"I didn't want to take too many risks as if you crash in the sprint, you won't get to take part in qualifying. Hopefully now with a sprint I've had more laps around this track so I will target pole," he said.
Daniel Ricciardo of Visa RB was a surprise fourth, followed by Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari, McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Nico Hülkenberg of Haas.
Hamilton thought he had taken the final points place off Visa RB's Yuki Tsunoda with a final-lap overtake, but the seven-time world champion was given a 20-second post-race time penalty for speeding in the pit lane and dropped to 16th.
Qualifying for Sunday's grand prix is later on Saturday. Verstappen, who also won the first sprint of the year in China, tops the drivers' standings ahead of team-mate Perez as he chases a fourth consecutive world title.
