Max Verstappen won the sprint race in Miami as Fernando Alonso accused Lewis Hamilton of “arriving like a bull” as they collided at the first corner.
Verstappen controlled the 19-lap race – which was interrupted by an opening-lap safety car after Hamilton was involved in a coming together with Alonso – to claim a dominant win.
Charles Leclerc finished second for Ferrari with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez third. RB’s Daniel Ricciardo started and finished an impressive fourth with Hamilton originally finishing eighth following a ding-dong battle with Kevin Magnussen.
However, Hamilton was penalised for speeding in the pit lane, dropping him to 16th.
Pole-sitter Verstappen held off Leclerc on the short run down to the opening bend at the Hard Rock Stadium to lay down the foundations for a victory which sees him extend his championship lead over Perez from 25 points to 27.
But the action unfolded behind Verstappen with Hamilton taking centre stage.
The seven-time world champion, starting from a lowly 12th, enjoyed a strong getaway in his Mercedes before slinging his machine down the inside of an unsuspecting Alonso, four places ahead of him on the grid.
Hamilton bumped into Alonso’s Aston Martin who then collided with team-mate Lance Stroll. Lando Norris was minding his own business on the outside of the opening right-hander only for Stroll – sent out of control by Alonso – to hit the British driver’s McLaren.
Stroll and Norris both retired with damage while Alonso had to limp back to the pits with a puncture. “Whoa,” said Alonso, 43, over the radio. “Hamilton arrived like a bull.”
Hamilton was on the intercom, too. “There was a gap on the inside so I went for it,” he said, protesting his innocence.
The stewards noted the first-corner flashpoint but they took no further action allowing Hamilton to continue in ninth spot.
Out came the safety car and when the race resumed on the fourth lap of 19, Verstappen made no mistake to blast away from Leclerc and retain his lead.
The attention returned to Hamilton as he attempted to clear the Haas of Magnussen. However, the Dane was not prepared to let Hamilton by without a fight, using all of his machinery, and then some, to prevent the Briton from swooping by.
However, the stewards took a dim view of Magnussen’s aggressive defence and hit him with a 10-second penalty, but the fight continued.
“He just drove into me,” said Hamilton, and on lap 15 he then accused Magnussen of pushing him off the track at the chicane allowing RB’s Yuki Tsunoda to make his way ahead.
A lap later, Tsunoda and Hamilton cleared Magnussen and Hamilton then found a way past the Japanese driver which looked to have earned him the final point.
But the Mercedes driver was penalised for driving too fast in the pit lane under safety car conditions, dropping him way down the order. Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell finished 12th.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here