Verstappen Believes Hamilton Wasted His Time in Sprint Race Duel

Max Verstappen was not pleased with Lewis Hamilton during their battle for position in the Miami Sprint Race.

Verstappen claimed Hamilton "wasted our time" when the Mercedes driver returned a position to him during their intense duel in the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix Sprint Race.

The two rivals reignited their past rivalry, albeit for sixth position, in the 19-lap Sprint Race on Saturday in Miami.

They made light contact on the first lap before Verstappen launched an aggressive move at Turn 11 on lap eight, forcing both drivers off the track.

He relinquished the position when exiting Turn 17, despite appearing to gesture at Hamilton.

After the Sprint Race, where he finished sixth after beating Hamilton but then moved up to fifth following a penalty for Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Verstappen was frustrated with the lost time due to returning a position.

"I mean, I had to let him pass, but he didn't pass," he said. "So, we lost four seconds because he stayed behind me.

"That's where we wasted time. I don't know what else I could've done there, so that's a bit of a shame."

Verstappen was more positive about his Red Bull after Friday's Sprint Qualifying, where he qualified fifth on the grid.

Despite experiencing a similar start issue to the one he had in China, and noting his car "hopped" in low-speed corners, Verstappen said his pace was "not too bad".

"I think once we slightly got on top of our issues, because again the start wasn't great; there was something similar to China that happened," he explained.

"After that, after the last corner of the first lap, I didn't have any battery deployment issues.

"So, that made everything a lot more difficult for me.

"But after that, once I was in clean air, the car didn't feel too bad.

"I was able to catch up to one Mercedes. So, the pace was quite good, although I think there's still a lot of room for improvement on our side.

"The car is still not to my liking, and also in low-speed corners, the car is hopping a lot, which is a bit awkward. But we'll keep working."