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F1 LIVE | The Miami Grand Prix with Leclerc from pole position
The first Miami Grand Prix around the Hard Rock Stadium is about to begin. Unlike normal, the race will not start on the hour, but at 20:30 UK time. Can Max Verstappen attack Ferrari or will it be a dominant display by Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz? Follow all developments from Miami via GPblog's liveblog!
LIVE: The Grand Prix of Miami
All weekend Red Bull Racing and Ferrari have seemed to be evenly matched and it showed once again in qualifying. In Q3, Verstappen seemed to be on his way to his second pole position in a row, but both Ferrari drivers eventually went under his time. Because the Dutchman himself made a mistake in the fifth corner, he could forget about a starting spot on the front row. Therefore, he will start from the second row of the grid together with his Mexican teammate.
Mercedes disappoints
While Ferrari and Red Bull were again very fast this season, Mercedes finally seemed to be able to join the fight at the front. Until qualifying, everything looked good, but once in Q2 it was disappointing. George Russell dropped to 12th and Lewis Hamilton finished qualifying sixth, behind former teammate Valtteri Bottas.
Miami will be the third time we have run on a street circuit this season, after Jeddah and Melbourne. However, it remains to be seen whether we will see as much overtaking as in the first two races on a street circuit. Drivers have been worrying all weekend whether there is enough grip to drive different lines. So the strategy will be very important to find a way to the front.
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A very quick glance at the track tells you this is a circuit that will suit the Red Bull Racing car. Whilst cars that are better in the slow speed sectors gain more time because more time is spent in these sections, the amount of high-speed sections outweighs this similar to the Jeddah circuit.
The front straight and back straights are very long which will favour the Red Bull car. In Jeddah, they walked away with pole position and the race victory because of the long straights and high-speed corners that are barely noticed by an F1 car. Turn six to turn 11 is very similar to what we see with Saudi Arabia’s turn 13 hairpin.
The key part for Ferrari will be turns 11 to turn 16. Through this section, the cars will barely reach 150km/h which is where the Ferrari car really shows its strengths with traction in the corners allowing Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to get on the power early.
Any gains made by Ferrari in this section could be eaten straight back up with an almighty long straight towards the stadium. Expect DRS to be extremely powerful here, with the braking zone at turn 17 hardly being used as an overtaking area.
