Lewis Hamilton was able to secure a podium for Ferrari during the second sprint race of the season. He had gotten a taste of scoring good points in Miami and wanted to repeat the feat during Sunday’s Grand Prix. At the same time, his teammate, Charles Leclerc, didn’t even get to begin the short race. He was determined to salvage his weekend during the main event. There was a lot on the line for both of them as the lights went out.
During the qualifying session on Saturday, Leclerc qualified 8th and Hamilton 12th. Those were the positions in which they started the race, as well as the positions in which they ended the first lap. Neither of them managed to make up any places during the start.
Hamilton’s situation changed slightly after Doohan’s and Lawson’s incident in the first corner brought out a virtual safety car before the second lap of the race ended. The slower pace allowed him to get close to Hadjar in front. As soon as racing was resumed, he jumped in front of the young driver.
No real change happened in Leclerc’s case. He had found himself behind the Williams of his former teammate, Carlos Sainz, and was unable to move past in the first part of the race.
Bearman was the first driver to change his tires. He did so on lap 20, and others quickly followed. The two Ferraris stayed out a while longer than some of their rivals (like Verstappen, Antonelli, or both Williams drivers). This proved to be a good call. Before lap 30 Bearman went off track due to issues with his power unit. A virtual safety car was called in as the marshalls worked to get his car away from the action. This gave the drivers who had not yet pitted a perfect change to minimise the time loss that comes with a change of tires.
After their pits, Hamilton was in 10th, behind Hulkenberg, and Leclerc moved up to 7th, jumping between the two Williams. Hamilton quickly moved passed the Sauber, while his teammate lost the position to Sainz, putting the two right by each other on track. Leclerc focused on getting his position back from Sainz. In the process, he inadvertently helped Hamilton close the gap to the two drivers in front of him. In the end, the cars were close enough for both Ferrari drivers to overtake Williams in the same corner.
It was then that the issues within the team began. Hamilton changed his tires to mediums, while his teammate was using hards. The Brit asked for their positions to be swapped, claiming that styaing behind Leclerc only worsened then state of his tires. He believed that he was quicker than his teammate and had a viable chance of catching up to Antonelli in P6. It took a while for Ferrari to come to a decision, but on lap 39 the cars were swapped.
While Hamilton did begin closing the gap to Antonelli, he was unable to shake Leclerc off his tail. The Monegasque stayed within a second of his teammate. It wasn’t long before the roles switched, and Leclerc was heard on the radio talking about his tires overheating due to being stuck behind Hamilton. When it became clear that he was the one with a bigger chance of getting to the Mercedes, the cars were swapped again.
The swapping of positions cost both drivers some valuable time and resulted in both being visibly annoyed after the race. They finished 7th and 8th, gaining only 10 points for Ferrari. The team is still 4th in the standings, now with over 150 points separating them from McLaren. If there was one thing that the weekend in Miami proved, it was that there are some big issues in the Italian team that need to be adressed.
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