‘We’re finally battling with the cars we want to battle’ – Verstappen and Hamilton reflect on their Miami Sprint clash

Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton got stuck into an exhilarating battle for P6 in the Sprint at the Miami Grand Prix, but were both left with more questions than answers as car issues impacted their respective running.

The Red Bull driver started the Sprint in P5 with Hamilton close behind in seventh before they nearly came together on the opening lap, going three-wide with Alpine’s Franco Colapinto in a tense moment.

Although the Briton momentarily came out on top, the contest between the historic rivals didn’t end there as Verstappen looked to reclaim the position on Lap 9, which led to the duo running wide over track limits.

Verstappen was forced to give the place back but quickly made a more lasting overtake on Hamilton, and later gained another spot thanks to Kimi Antonelli’s five-second time penalty to wind up in fifth – his highest finish of the season so far.

Offering his verdict on Red Bull’s improvement from the first three rounds, Verstappen said: “I think overall it was a lot more positive. We’re finally battling a bit more with the cars that we want to battle, even considering all the issues that I had.

“At the start, again something went wrong, and then at the end of the first lap I also had no battery release out of the last corner, so that’s why I got passed.

“After that, once I was in clean air a bit, the pace was okay. There are still a few problems with the car that I want to sort out and we’ll go from there.”

While the Dutchman was primarily struggling with braking issues, Hamilton was left to rue the set-up of his Ferrari as he could only secure two points in P7, while his team mate Charles Leclerc ended up on the podium.

Asked by Sky Sports what needs to be adjusted ahead of Qualifying, he replied: “I’m hoping that we can change a lot. I think yesterday I lost three-tenths just because the software wasn’t working properly.

“I was driving the same but losing down the straights. In the [Sprint], it seemed that that continued from [Sprint] Qualifying so I think they’re going to have to do some software changes or something to make sure that doesn’t happen going into Qualifying.

“Hopefully we’ll have slightly better deployment. The set-up is in the wrong place so definitely will make some big changes going into Qualifying.”