The Miami lap that would decide the 2023 World Championship

You are Sergio Perez, and it is the evening of May 6th, 2023 inMiami. You've just got back to your hotel and perhaps are catchinghighlights of the Coronation of King Charles III on the TV, butlife is pretty good. You will be starting tomorrow's Miami GrandPrix from pole position with your main title rival down in ninthafter fluffing his first lap in Q3, before a red flag caught himout on the second runs. If you win the race, you will lead theWorld Championship for the first time in your career, and you willhave won three of the first five races of the year against a driverwho destroyed you the previous year. Come the start of the race,you even make a clean getaway and maintain the lead while yourteam-mate navigates his way through the pack. Everything is goingto plan. But on Lap 48, Max Verstappen crushed Perez's title hopesby scything past into Turn 1 - which started a downward spiral thattook Perez to the lowest of the lows - and all but secured thetitle for the Dutchman. Verstappen's win Verstappen's victory inMiami was built on a fantastically strong stint after starting onthe Hards, and running long. He cycled into the lead when Perezpitted, but instead of the Mexican eating into the gap on thefresher tyres, Verstappen comfortably held Perez just outside hispit-stop window. This meant that when Verstappen made his stop, hewould rejoin a few seconds behind Perez on fresh Medium tyres. The#1 pitted at the end of Lap 45, rejoining just over one secondbehind. By the end of the next lap, Verstappen was right up Perez'sgearbox, and out-braked him into Turn 1 on Lap 48, pulling away forthe win. This was Verstappen's third win of 19 and started hisrecord-breaking run of 10 straight wins, with only Carlos Sainz inSingapore defeating him on a Sunday for the rest of the year. Asfor Perez, his title ambitions went from bad to worse in Monacowhen he crashed heavily at Turn 1, triggering a spiral of downwardform as he trudged across Europe. As a racing driver, all Perez hasdreamed about is becoming Formula 1 World Champion - and so to haveyour dream so close and then crushed in an astonishing way is boundto have a mental impact. Once Perez realises, like RubensBarrichello and Valtteri Bottas before him, he cannot beat theall-time great over the garage, and accepts this, the better hewill be for it.