FACTS AND STATS: Verstappen does US double as Russell maintains top-5 run

Miami was a trip into the unknown in many respects. One thing that was for sure was that it would throw up some fascinating numbers – here’s just a handful for starters…

• Max Verstappen won at Palm Beach and at Homestead in his first season of car racing in 2014, and he won in Miami today.

• It was his second consecutive win in the United States after his victory in Austin in 2021.

REPORT: Verstappen wins inaugural Miami Grand Prix over Leclerc after late Safety Car drama

• Verstappen today moved into the top-10 in all-time podium finishes today, going ahead of David Coulthard.

• Prior to today, Verstappen had only once won on his first visit to a track – his home circuit of Zandvoort in 2021.

• Verstappen started P3 today – nobody has won from below the front row in the USA since the United States Grand Prix of 2005 at Indianapolis when Michael Schumacher won from P5.

• In P2, Charles Leclerc took his first podium finish in the USA – and his 17th career podium.

• Leclerc – in car 16 – achieved his 16th consecutive race finish today, the longest streak in F1 right now.

• Carlos Sainz took P3 for Ferrari today, having only completed one lap in the last two previous races combined.

• Both Ferraris made the podium for the third time in five races this year. That never happened at all in 2020 or 2021.

• Sergio Perez finished P4 for Red Bull, meaning he would have finished in the top four at every race this season but for his last-lap mechanical failure in Bahrain.

• With P5 for Mercedes, George Russell maintained his record as the only driver to finish in the top five at every race this season.

• In P6, his team mate Lewis Hamilton finished outside the top four in the USA for the first time in his F1 career.

• After losing two places late on to the Mercedes, Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas took P7, so has finished in the top eight in four of the opening five races this year.

• Esteban Ocon was P8 for Alpine. The Frenchman started last on the grid, scored for the fourth time in five Grands Prix, and has beaten team mate Fernando Alonso in every race in 2022.

• Alonso came home in P9 – only his second points finish of year (he was also ninth in Bahrain).

MUST-SEE: Dramatic Gasly and Norris contact brings out Safety Car in Miami GP

• With P10, Alex Albon scored a point on the 45th anniversary of the debut of Williams Grand Prix Engineering in the 1977 Spanish GP.

• For McLaren’s Lando Norris, a 15-race finishing streak ended with a collision with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly today.