Damon Hill has recently called out critics who were not enjoying the Max Verstappen vs Sergio Perez in the 2023 Miami Grand Prix. Taking to his social media account, the 1996 F1 champion slammed the naysayers saying that they don’t understand the sport.
As per his official Twitter handle, Hill stated that the people who were not enjoying the Miami race, “They don’t understand Formula One.” Admittedly, the 2023 Miami GP was an exciting race that included the Dutchman’s bold tire strategy to jump his teammate Perez.
The former F1 driver then went on to point out the excitement the Red Bull duo brought for a moment. He added that two guys [Verstappen and Perez] were fighting it out to become World Champion and it was down to a split second.
Mostly a dull race with no safety car or retirement, the first of three US races provided much-needed excitement when the two Red Bulls were wheel-to-wheel against each other. However, the contention didn’t last long as the two-time world champion sped past the Mexican, despite Saturday’s jeopardy.
Max Verstappen extends his championship lead
With the latest win, the defending champion Verstappen has further extended his lead against the only title contender. The Dutchman extended his lead by 14 points against his teammate Perez after he overtook him for P1 and also took the fastest lap.
Coming into the Miami race, the 25-year-old had six points advantage over the Mexican pilot. With Checo starting from P1, there were good chances that he could have won the race and taken charge of the championship.
However, it wasn’t possible, as Max Verstappen was in a different mood today. Plowing through the field from P9 to take the win, the fastest lap, and extending the lead, it has been a good day for the Hasselt-born. Verstappen extended his lead at the top, with currently, the two Red Bull drivers having 119, and 105 points in the drivers’ championship standings respectively.
Verstappen proved Alonso wrong
With the speed that the Dutchman had in Miami, it took ten fewer laps for Verstappen to prove Alonso wrong. The Spaniard predicted that he will be overtaken in the race by the defending champion by lap 25.
However, the two-time world champion with his mighty RB-19, proved the prediction to be wrong as he got the job done by lap 15. As he passed another two-time world champion, he remembered the prediction and talked about it later on in the cool-down room.
In the closing stages of the race, the Dutchman breezed psat his teammate Perez easily to take his third win of the season from P9. Doing so, Verstappen became the first driver to win from P9 since Niki Lauda in 1984, as per BBC.
