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Fifth at the flag for Max in Miami
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Reactions from the Team
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Hear from the Team after a busy weekend in Miami
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Race Report
Max, our four-time champion, delivered perhaps his strongest drive of the season so far, powering through the field following an early pit stop.
At lights out both Max and polesitter Kimi Antonelli got away slowly and it was once again Charles Leclerc who made the most of the start, with the Ferrari driver racing through to challenge for the lead. Max responded to the threat by going deep into the Turn 1 braking zone and while he managed to hang on as Kimi locked up and went wide, the Dutchman was squeezed by Charles in the following corner, went on the kerb, and with a reactive flick of the steering wheel, Max spun. Miraculously, amid a sea of cars, the four-time champion managed to emerge unscathed, but he resumed in P9, tussling with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and the Williams pair, Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon.
Max storming through the mid-field
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Further back, Isack, who had started from pitlane after a technical infringement in qualifying, was on the move, and after just four laps he was up into 16th place. Unfortunately, the Frenchman’s progress ended there. On lap six, after passing Arvid Lindblad, Isack clipped the wall on the left of the chicane, breaking his suspension and sending himself into the barriers on the outside of Turn 15.
The Safety Car was deployed, and Max took the opportunity to pit, shedding his starting Mediums for a set of Hard tyres. The only driver to make the switch, he emerged in P16, focused on a charge back toward the points.
The SC left the track at the end of lap 11 and Max immediately hit the afterburners, roaring past Lance Stroll, Gabriel Bortoleto, Sergio Pérez and Arvid in the space of two laps to hold P12. On lap 14 he breezed past Haas’ Esteban Ocon and a handful of corners later, powered past the Frenchman’s teammate, Ollie Bearman, to move into the points.
Max making the RB22 fly
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There was a nervous moment when Williams’ Alex Albon shut the door on an ambitious move and almost removed Max’s front wing, but the Dutchman quickly found a more straightforward way past his former teammate and then muscled past Carlos and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto before rising to P5 when both Charles and George pitted.
Max’s next target was Lewis, and at the end of lap 26, he opened his RB22’s new rear wing, closed right up to the Ferrari on the 1.2m back straight and pounced, diving down the inside into Turn 17 to steal fourth place.
And that’s when the front-running trio of Lando, Kimi and Oscar all made their stops for Hard tyres while Max, on lap 29, briefly charged into the lead. Kimi and Lando were close behind, however, and with both on fresher tyres and with pace in hand, there was little Max could do, slipping back to third place.
For the following 10 laps, Max’s race was settled. However, with his tyres running out, he began to lose time to those behind and with 13 laps remaining, Charles began to press for a way past.
An encouraging weekend for the Team
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On lap 47, the Ferrari driver pounced on Turn 1. Max responded brilliantly, screaming around the outside of the Ferrari to retake the position. But while it was classic Max, he was fighting a losing battle with his tyres; Charles swept past again and Max drifted back towards both Oscar and George. He lost places to both, but in the closing laps Charles spun and clouted the wall, sustaining some damage, resulting in him slowing down and falling back into the hands of George and Max. In the final corners of the final lap, George went through, and Max swept past the Ferrari to finish fifth at the line in what was undoubtedly his strongest race of 2026 and a sign of brighter days ahead for the team.
It was a very eventful race. Unfortunately, on lap one I lost the rear and spun in the second corner which was a shame. I recovered it well but then we had to manage and minimise the time loss. After that we opted to do an early stop. It is easy to say after the race, but the Hard tyre wasn’t really working for us as we didn’t have particularly good grip and struggled a bit at the end. I tried my best to hang in there, but it wasn’t meant to be. However we for sure picked up a bit of performance which is really promising. Overall, it was a positive weekend for us and good to be back in the mix. The car is a work in progress and we keep on pushing and keep trying to improve, so we are heading in the right direction.
It's a tough one to take. We had a good start from the pitlane and I felt awesome the first few laps. We had very good pace early on and then the mistake came. I didn't see it coming and everything went so fast, I was just too eager and ended up finding the limit of the track. I need to look back at what happened to understand where I went wrong. The Team made a big step forward and the pace was much stronger today than we've had in the opening rounds, so I'm frustrated that I couldn't score what I felt were easy points. I'm already itching to get back into the car in Canada and maximise what we now have.
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