Verstappen only wanted to "have fun" with his entertaining on-track battles with the McLarens

Coming off the back of a brilliant pole position in Saturday's qualifying, four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen was left to rue the pace of his RB21 in race trim while he also lamented the virtual safety car intervention that cost him a possible podium finish.

The reigning champion put in a brilliant effort in qualifying to secure pole position for the Miami Grand Prix. However, he had quickly indicated that he might be unable to fend off the McLarens on a track where thermal degradation usually plays a big role.

Verstappen was challenged by Lando Norris at the start, but he maintained the lead after a brutal fight through the opening two corners. However, he immediately found himself under pressure from Piastri, and while he held onto the lead for a few laps, he eventually out-braked himself and let the much quicker McLaren past.

Having lost the lead to Piastri, Verstappen had company again as Norris closed in on the Dutch driver. Although he defended hard against McLaren's British racer, Noris eventually got through. Verstappen then looked on for third, but got jumped by Mercedes driver George Russell as the Briton capitalized on the virtual safety car intervention which allowed him to shorten his time loss in the pit lane.

His team-mate Yuki Tsunoda started from P10 on the grid. The Japanese spent the first part of the race behind the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, but he picked up a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane. However, he managed to put his foot down on the last few laps to pull a five-second gap to his former team-mate Isack Hadjar behind to make sure he held on to the last point.

Reflecting on the race, Verstappen was left to rue the pace of his RB21 while he also lamented the virtual safety car intervention that cost him a possible podium finish.

“Yesterday I said that I would try my very best and I gave it everything that I could, but it ended up being a struggle out there. I tried to put up a fight, but in the end it was impossible to keep them behind.

"We got a bit unlucky with the VSC, but of course that is part of racing and overall the pace wasn’t really there. We had nothing to lose so I was just trying to have a bit of fun on the track and it was cool to be out there racing."

Speaking of the technical difficulties, Verstappen noted: "The race was unfortunately quite difficult for us in general and we ultimately lacked pace and struggled with the breaks. Every time that I tried to get close or push a bit more, my tyres would overheat a lot.

"It was really down to tyre management today and the track had quite high degradation, which is not our strong suit at the moment. We need a bit more performance to make sure we are more competitive, but we were quite far off today."