Star-studded Miami GP crowd sees latest Red Bull procession as Max Verstappen cruises from ninth on grid to win again

FORMULA ONE needs more than a new theme song and a paddock full of A-listers to keep Americans interested in this procession.

Max Verstappen drove to victory as the sport served up another dud with teammate Sergio Perez in second place.

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The Dutchman had it all too easy when the rest of the field stopped and allowed him to work his way from ninth on the grid to the checkered flag.

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton was sixth after recovering from a poor qualifying session, while his Mercedes teammate George Russell was fourth.

A star-studded field of A-listers was treated to a special driver introduction segment before the race, with rapper LL Cool J providing the words and producer will.i.am conducting an orchestra.

There’s also a stunning new song from the latter featuring rapper Lil Wayne which is hilariously bad as F1 tries to appeal to new audiences.

Obviously, some drivers preferred the attention more than others, while it sent fans on social media to their knees as they urged F1 never to repeat the stunt.

The eye-catching intro saw each rider shout out to clouds of dry ice from behind a curtain while they were all given the top bill.

To his credit, LL Cool J at least got all the names right.

Poor ol’ F1 legend Sir Jackie Stewart was caught up in the fray of fame-hungry, photographing influencers and mauled by security guards when he tried to drag tennis star Roger Federer to speak to Sky’s Martin Brundle.

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After the stage was cleared and the influencers left the grid, the race finally got underway and it was Perez who got the best start to stay ahead of Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton, who had started 13th, got into traffic and made contact with Nico Hulkenberg von Haas.

And Verstappen also got off to a slow start on the slower hard tyre, dropping one place to tenth.

But the Dutchman’s pain was short-lived as he made his way through the field.

On the fourth lap he was in sixth place with a nice double overtake by Charles Leclerc and Kevin Magnussen.

Then, with the help of the DRS, he managed a stunning move to pass George Russell and move up a place before chasing Carlos Sainz who was in third place.

Much further back and rolling around in 13th, Hamilton wasn’t happy as he complained over his team’s radio that he didn’t think he’d make it to the end of the race.

He was reassured by his race engineer but struggled to get past Alex Albons Williams in ninth place.

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But Verstappen had no such problems. He passed Sainz unchallenged on lap 14 and finished third.

A lap later, he passed Alonso to move into second place and started to work his way into the lead from Perez.

The Mexican was called out for fresh tires on lap 21 and had a quick 2.2-second pit stop, but the tire change propelled Verstappen to the top.

The World Champion set about putting in fast laps as he attempted to gain enough advantage over his team-mate to make his necessary pit stop.

But he wasn’t entirely comfortable when he asked his race engineer about the settings for his front wing.

But he was ticked off and told to keep driving. His engineer replied: “Max, I’ll take a look at the pit wall, please concentrate on driving.”

Verstappen finally pitted from the lead at the end of lap 45, pushing Perez back into the lead.

RED BULL LIGHTNING

But the Mexican’s lead lasted just a few laps as Verstappen closed the 1.6 second gap and effortlessly overtook him on lap 48.

Verstappen said: “It was a good race. I stayed out of trouble in the beginning and picked up the cars one by one.

“I had a little fight with Checo at the end but we kept it clean and that’s the main thing.

“Qualifying was a bit of a setback, but winning a race from P9 is always nice.”

Perez added: “I tried and gave everything. The first stint was poor with grit and affected my race. Max deserved the win.”

That means Verstappen has a 14-point lead in the championship after winning three of the first five races this season.

If the 90,766-capacity viewers – plus the massive television audience – were expecting the drama and excitement portrayed in Netflix’s ‘Drive to Survive,’ they didn’t get it.

And that leaves F1 with a small problem because this certainly wasn’t the publicity they needed to showcase their sport in the United States.

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