Alonso finished 26 seconds off the pace in P3, but seven seconds ahead of fourth-place finisher George Russell.
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With a flawless performance in the 2023 Miami Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin earned his fourth podium in five races, but the two-time champion was obviously itching for a victory. In a Saturday qualifying session that saw Charles Leclerc crash out, Max Verstappen qualify ninth, and Sergio Perez claim pole, Alonso impressively placed second on the grid. Alonso finished 26 seconds off the pace in P3, but seven seconds ahead of fourth-place finisher George Russell. Verstappen ultimately made a fantastic comeback to win the race ahead of Perez.
“The car is amazing, and [it was] a little bit of a lonely race, today,” he said. “Nothing really to do in front of us with the Red Bulls and behind us. We did expect a little bit stronger opposition, but the Ferraris, they were a little bit worse than expected. It’s not easy, it’s never easy, but it was a lonely race.”
“I think at the beginning of the year a podium was amazing; now after four podiums we obviously want more, at least a second place,” Alonso added. “But the two Red Bulls they are always unbreakable, and always super-fast, but as I said, maybe Monaco, maybe Barcelona we have a possibility. We take the podium going into the triple, Imola, Monaco and Barcelona, which hopefully we can keep on going.”
Team mate Lance Stroll was eliminated in Q1 on Saturday but from P18 on the grid he made up six places and finished 12th. “Yeah, I mean, it was just not our weekend. Yesterday we had a bad qualifying, did what we could today – but a tough one. Just really tough to overtake and a DRS train the whole way, so it was just a tough one.”
Aston Martin maintains second place in the standings going into Imola after scoring 15 points in Miami. However, third-place constructors Mercedes closed the gap on their customer team after scoring 20 points on Sunday.
In the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday, Max Verstappen defeated Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez to win. After qualifying ninth, Verstappen overtook the pole-sitter in the closing laps to reclaim the 2023 championship lead. Perez had cut Verstappen’s lead in the championship to just six points with a Sprint and Grand Prix double in Azerbaijan last time out, and a wild qualifying session at the Miami International Autodrome gave him a great chance to overtake Verstappen.
Verstappen, on the other hand, skillfully extended his initial stint on hards to rise from P9 to P1 through a series of fine moves, and he eventually emerged just behind his teammate with a fresh set of mediums late in the race. Perez, on the other hand, led the first half of the race on a medium-hard tyre strategy. Verstappen easily passed Perez with 10 laps left to take the lead, and he would not give it up. As a result, Perez was forced to settle for second place and lost some of the ground he had gained in the title race.
