Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
Hamilton finished in the points, and F1 put together a montage of how he got there in Miami
After a qualifying session to forget for Mercedes, the team came away with a “satisfying” performance in the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday. George Russell came away with a fourth-place finish and teammate Lewis Hamilton, after failing to advance to Q3 and starting 12th on Sunday, charged up the field into sixth.
Thanks to a recent video from Formula 1, we can now see exactly how Hamilton made his surge. F1 shared on Wednesday a cut-up video of all the overtakes that Hamilton executed in the Miami Grand Prix, starting with a move around Alex Albon on Lap 15, and culminating with a dart to the inside around Charles Leclerc on Lap 54. On that move, you can see exactly how Leclerc left just enough room on the inside, which Hamilton immediately exploits:
The Miami Grand Prix certainly had an air of inevitability around it, building to the expected result. Despite starting ninth, Max Verstappen put together his own charge through the grid, pushing up to P2 by Lap 15, setting the fastest lap of the race (to that point) on Lap 35 on 35-lap-old hard tyres, and overtaking his teammate Sergio Pérez en route to the victory.
That inevitability, coupled with the dominance this year from Verstappen, Pérez and the entire Red Bull team, has led some to label this F1 season a rather dull affair. The team has won every race, and Red Bull sits well ahead of Aston Martin atop the Constructors’ standings.
However, 270,000 fans passed through Miami this week for the second Miami Grand Prix, an increase over last year’s numbers for the inaugural event. And Hamilton’s moves on the track highlight the point that while thins could feel inevitable at the front o the pack, there is good racing to be found all over the grid. Hamilton’s charge is one example, but other battles played out around the track, including a back-and-forth tussle between Leclerc and Kevin Magnussen of Haas.
Leclerc ultimately won that affair, but Magnussen took the position back a few times before the Ferrari finally held onto the spot for good.
