(Reuters) – Statistics for Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix at the Hard Rock Stadium, round six of the 24-race Formula One championship:
Lap distance: 5.412km. Total distance: 308.326km (57 laps)
2023 pole position: Sergio Perez (Mexico) Red Bull One minute, 26.841 seconds
2023 winner: Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Red Bull
Lap record: Verstappen 1:29.708 (2023)
Start time: 2000 GMT (1600 local)
MIAMI
The race is the third to be held in Miami and Verstappen won the previous two in 2022 and 2023.
Miami is also the first of three U.S. rounds on the calendar, with Austin and Las Vegas, and is being held in the sprint format for the first time.
The Hard Rock Stadium is usually home to the Miami Dolphins NFL team. The temporary street circuit has three straights and 19 corners, with cars reaching top speeds of 340kph.
A one-stop strategy is generally the favoured approach, with most going from medium to hard tyres.
Last year the track temperature hit 55 Celsius (131F).
CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD
Verstappen has led the championship for a record 44 successive races dating back to Spain in May 2022 and arrives in Miami 25 points clear of Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez and 34 ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Red Bull are 44 points clear of Ferrari.
SPRINT
Miami hosts the second of the season’s six sprint weekends, with just one practice session on Friday.
Verstappen won the season’s first in China and Red Bull won five of six sprints last year.
WINS
Verstappen has won four of five races this season, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz triumphant in Australia.
Sainz is the only driver to have beaten Red Bull since 2022.
Hamilton has a record 103 career victories from 337 starts but is chasing his first since 2021 — a run of 50 races without a win.
Red Bull won 21 of 22 races last year, with Verstappen victorious in a record 19, and have won 35 of the last 38.
The team have won 117 races and are fourth in the all-time list of winners. Ferrari lead with 244, McLaren have 183 and Mercedes 125.
Verstappen has won 58 grands prix and is third on the all-time list. Michael Schumacher is second on 91.
POLE POSITION
Hamilton has a record 104 career poles, his most recent in Hungary last year.
Verstappen is the first driver this century to take the first five poles of a season. Another on Saturday would be his seventh in a row, including the last race of 2023.
The last driver to take pole in the first five races was Mika Hakkinen with McLaren in 1999. The last to take the first six poles of a season was Alain Prost with Williams in 1993.
PODIUMS
Verstappen has 102 career podiums, Hamilton 197.
The Red Bull driver set a record of 21 podiums in a season last year but Michael Schumacher remains the only driver to have stood on the podium in every race of a season (2002).
MILESTONE
Ferrari are starting a new title partnership with HP and will have a special Miami livery this weekend.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Peter Rutherford)
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