Verstappen: I never felt comfortable in the car

Verstappen never looked his dominant self over the course of the Miami GP weekend, winning the Sprint Race by a smaller margin than usual while even in qualifying for the Sunday's grand prix, he was on pole by over a tenth from Charles Leclerc, not improving on his final run.

It seems the RB20 was not immune from the tyre troubles that marred all the team last weekend, and indeed Verstappen was complaining about grip all the time, while an excursion into a cone at Turn 15 on Lap 23 did not help his race causing damage to his car.

But in the end, an untimely Safety Car - for Verstappen that is, not Lando Norris - sealed the Dutchman's fate as he had to watch his buddy Norris cruise towards his maiden victory.

Reflecting on his race in Red Bull's Race report, Verstappen said: "Ultimately today we were not quick enough; the safety car did not help us but we still had plenty of opportunities to win the race and unfortunately we lacked pace.

"When we took the car back to the garage, we also found that the floor was damaged and had a hole in which could have been picked up from hitting the cone," he revealed. "We also struggled with the tyres and balance of the car all weekend and I never felt too comfortable in the car.

"In the high speed I was understeering and we also struggled a lot with the grip with the tyres. It wasn't our best weekend and it really shows that everything needs to work well to win races and it is not as easy as people might think.

"However, I am happy for Lando. Your first win is always emotional and he drove a great race: it was a long time coming and he deserved it today," the triple F1 Champion concluded.

Sergio Perez took the chequered flag fifth, but Carlos Sainz's five-second penalty for contact with Oscar Piastri meant the Mexican was classified fourth.

He survived a Lap 1 incident when he went deep into Turn 1 and was lucky not to collect his teammate not to mention wiping out both Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

Perez commented on his race: "Overall it was quite a tricky race, especially at the start when I went down the inside and ended up narrowly avoiding Max.

"There was no grip at all, which we hadn't expected and I ended up losing a place to Piastri and damaged my tyres for the first stint. Basically, everything was running a little too hot and I was struggling to get through the people ahead as we lacked pace today.

"We were struggling on both mediums throughout the race, we came back a little bit towards the end but I couldn't get into the rhythm until late in the race. We knew Mclaren were very, very strong this weekend, and we just didn't have the pace of the Mclaren today at the front.

"We made some changes overnight, that in hindsight were not in the right direction," Perez lamented, "so we'll need to debrief from this weekend to come back for Imola."

It was not the weekend Red Bull would've hoped for in Miami, starting with the announcement of the departure of their design guru Adrian Newey.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner summed up: "Firstly, congratulations to McLaren and Lando. They ran a great race and it's a well deserved victory.

"Max was a little unfortunate to sustain floor damage when he hit the bollard around the 21st lap, he did well to maintain his position, but it was difficult for him to recover from there.

"Checo was also struggling with his tyres, he came back a little to the end but it was hard to find a rhythm. We were also a little unfortunate with the safety car today but that's racing.

"We still scored the most points in the Drivers' Championship and in the Constructors' so can take that with us back to Europe and the fact that it's still been a strong weekend," Horner concluded.

Verstappen remains on top of the 2024 F1 Drivers' Championship, 33 points ahead of Perez in second. Red Bull still lead the Constructors' Standings from Ferrari by 52 points.