Leclerc managed to hold on to his pole at the start. His teammate Sainz, on the other hand, relinquished his second place to Verstappen, who had started in third. Behind the Spaniard, Pérez and Bottas kept their respective fourth and fifth positions. 

Completed the first two laps and Leclerc momentarily escaped 1,1 seconds ahead of the Dutchman, but the latter wouldn’t give up and soon caught up with him. On the 9th lap, Verstappen finally devoured the Monegasque at the end of the straight. The likely issues with the Ferrari tires had played in favour of the defending champion but they were both still running very close together. 

https://twitter.com/DAZN_ES/status/1523386094955294720

The battle for the leadership allowed Sainz and Pérez to remain close to the head of the race. Only 5 seconds separated the four leading cars. Slowly, and thanks to a small mistake by Leclerc, Max cruised ahead increasing his advantage from 1,6 to 2,6 seconds. By lap 16 his rhythm was unattainable. Soon he was running 4,5 seconds ahead of Leclerc who was followed by his Spanish teammate at roughly the same distance. 

https://twitter.com/DAZN_ES/status/1523390589768638465

War on the pits 

The title rivals began their pit dance on lap 25. The first one to visit the garage was Leclerc who changed his mediums for hards. Verstappen would follow suit a lap later. 

On the following tour, it was Sainz’s turn, which suffered a dreadful, 5,4 seconds stop which could have well cost him the podium. Not in vain, Checo, after a 3,4 second stop, was on the prowl behind.  

Following the first round of stops, the Miami GP resumed unchanged with Verstappen leading Leclerc by 7,6 seconds. The Dutchman asserted his authority by taking the fastest lap. Sainz followed in third. Despite being held back by his front right wheel during his atrocious pit stop, he was already 12 seconds from his teammate and five ahead of Pérez.  

https://twitter.com/DAZN_ES/status/1523398131970285569

Safety car: Things get exciting at the top 

When the fate of the race seemed decided, Lando Norris (McLaren) and Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri) crashed on lap 41, turning everything upside down. The safety car came on lap 42 after a period of virtual safety car. Pérez quickly took advantage of the situation to mount medium compounds and go after Sainz on resuming the race, which happened on the 46th lap, with 11 to go. 

https://twitter.com/DAZN_ES/status/1523403377895346176

As the safety car left the track Max got a few metres and 0,7 seconds over Leclerc, at the same time as Pérez, in fourth, endeavoured to hunt Sainz down, third. Despite every attempt from the pursuers to steal the position ahead, nothing would change now.

https://twitter.com/DAZN_ES/status/1523409168048087040

Max maintained his spectacular defence to victory, so much so that Leclerc finally gave up in the final laps, falling back by over three seconds. Similarly, Sainz fended Pérez off, despite both lightly touching with six laps left for the end.  

https://twitter.com/DAZN_ES/status/1523411285093756929