Chris Harris on F1: All Hail Kevin Magnussen, the Chaos King of Miami
This continued for so many laps that we all but forgot Hamilton had been incredibly fortunate not to be penalized for understeering into a couple of Astons and ultimately ending Lando’s sprint race. The television director clearly agreed—Haas’s small band of advertisers must have been whooping for joy as Verstappen and the fast crew were ignored in favor of Magnussen doing whatever was humanly possible, short of lobbing nails out of his cockpit, to keep Lewis behind him. Sprint race naysayers should at this point have admitted it was a far better spectacle than any free practice session
Nico Hulkenberg leads Kevin Magnussen and Lewis Hamilton in the Miami GP sprint race
Nico Hulkenberg leads Kevin Magnussen and Lewis Hamilton in the Miami GP sprint race
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
to, you see, to protect Hulk’s seventh-place points. If K-MAG actually was a Copenhagen rap artist with an album to sell, I’d have purchased several copies right there and then. His confession was supported by Lewis shrugging to the same camera a few minutes later; he’d enjoyed the hard racing, too. We proxy non-experts had been offended on their behalves, but the actual competitors just got on with it. Didn’t care. No problem. Probably that’s why they’re F1 drivers and we’re not.
Lando Norris behind his personal choice for DOTD.
Lando Norris behind his personal choice for DOTD.
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
his tires, setting lap times that had his competitors worrying. He was leading the race when on lap 29 the safety car made a cameo appearance. The cause? K-MAG! Clearly unhappy at the lack of air-time from the trackside cameras, Magnussen sent a speculative half-move into Turn 3 and pitched Logan Sergeant into the barriers. The clouds parted, angels sung, and Norris ambled into a pit stop that saved him huge amounts of time. At this point Norris was already the driver of the day for me, but what happened next merely confirmed it.
Norris, F1 winner after 110 races and 15 podiums, goes for a celebratory ride.
Norris, F1 winner after 110 races and 15 podiums, goes for a celebratory ride.
Photo by: Michael Potts / Motorsport Images
In all, it was a weekend of gleeful chaos and unexpected triumphs, which is not what most assumed Miami could deliver. Of course, Christian Horner was on hand to dampen the mood during the media post-mortem. He told us that Max’s floor had been badly damaged mid-race (RIP the chicane bollard, we hardly knew ye), so it’s likely we can’t circle the Miami GP as the beginning of the end of the Red Bull Empire. But it did, at least, offer us hope for more such excitement in the coming races—some of which will no doubt hinge on how the great K-MAG decides to influence matters.
Top illustration: Ralph Hermens