07 May 2023 , 21:39
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Sergio Perez was hauled into the stewards' room just minutes after being beaten to Miami Grand Prix victory by Max Verstappen.
The Mexican started the race on pole and will have fancied his chances of converting it into a victory. After all, his Red Bull team-mate was ninth on the grid after his qualifying was compromised by a red flag.
But it was never going to hold up Verstappen for too long. He made light work of cutting through the pack and, on a different strategy, made excellent progress on his hard tyres to put himself in the ideal position when it came to his mandatory pit stop.
It worked like a charm as the Dutchman came back out of the pit lane right behind Perez on much newer tyres, and it wasn't long before he moved past. He went on to win to extend his advantage over the Mexican at the top of the drivers' standings.
And, to make matter worse for Perez, he was soon called to the stewards' room. He was charged with a breach of the sporting regulations for turning up late for the pre-race drivers' parade.
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As it was a procedural breach, he will not get a sporting penalty as punishment. At worst, he will get a telling off for not properly completing his responsibilities and perhaps a fine.
Max Verstappen executed his race strategy perfectly to win in Miami (Getty Images)Speaking in parc ferme after the race, Perez was clearly disappointed to miss out on the chance to take the lead in the drivers' standings. But he was magnanimous in defeat to Verstappen, putting the blame on his strategy which didn't work as well as he would have liked.
The 33-year-old said: "I tried, I gave it all. The first stint was really poor with the graining we had in that initial phase, and that compromised our race a lot. We didn't have too much of a difference on tyres and Max was particularly strong today, so a well deserved win for him.
"The medium initially was really poor, worse than expected. That really compromised our pace. And then I think Max had tremendous pace on the hard tyre and I need to analyse what went wrong today. We simply didn't have the pace."