‘It was just too difficult to keep the tyres alive’ – Verstappen admits regret over strategy call in Miami

Max Verstappen feels that Red Bull's decision to pit him early in the Miami Grand Prix limited his ability to fight for any position higher than P5.

The Dutchman recognised the team’s progress over the weekend though – the Milton Keynes outfit joined many of their competitors in bringing extensive upgrades to Miami – as they look to recover from a lacklustre start to the year that had seen a high point of P6 in the opening round.

The updates seemed to pay off from the get-go as Verstappen secured a top-five finish in the Sprint and came close to taking pole position for the Grand Prix, losing out to Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli by 0.166s in a close-fought Qualifying session.

However, his front row start fell away from him in a matter of corners as he locked up heading into Turn 1, losing a position to Charles Leclerc before he dramatically spun and plummeted to P10.

Reflecting on the mistake, Verstappen said: “Bit of a shame, of course, what happened in Turn 2 – I just lost the rear and then I tried to recover or minimise the damage by doing that 360.”

He then dropped further down the order as Red Bull switched out his medium compound tyres for hards during an early Safety Car period while his team mate Isack Hadjar's car was recovered, as well as the Alpine of Pierre Gasly from a separate incident.

The decision eventually saw Verstappen inherit the lead of the race as his rivals chose to wait until later to pit, but it also meant that his tyre performance dropped off as the end approached, resulting in him losing places to Oscar Piastri and George Russell.

P6 looked to be the best result the Dutchman could hope for, but Leclerc spun on the final lap of the race and bumped the wall, suffering damage that forced him to limp to the finish line where Verstappen pipped him to fifth by just under three-tenths.

“We opted to go early onto the hard compound and I think now in hindsight after the race, it was probably a bit too long, that stint,” he said. “It was just too difficult to keep the tyres alive.

“I just think that on the hard compound we were not that competitive. On the medium I felt a bit better.”