MIAMI — Inter Miami forward Luis Suarez was in the paddock at the Miami Grand Prix on Thursday afternoon, drawing a crowd of photographers and TV cameras as he played a friendly soccer juggling game with Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz.

The world’s best F1 race car drivers are in town this weekend, Suarez and Sainz are both sponsored by Puma and are friends.

There is much crossover between international soccer stars and race car drivers, and there is a chance some racers and/or celebrities in town for the race will be at Chase Stadium Saturday night when Inter Miami plays the New York Red Bulls in a rematch of Miami’s biggest loss of the year, a 4-0 drubbing on the road six weeks ago.

It was cold and stormy that day, and several key players were missing from both teams, including Miami captain Lionel Messi, who missed four games with a hamstring injury. To make matters worse, it was a former Inter Miami player, Lewis Morgan, who led the Red Bulls with a hat trick.

“It was a poor game, we have analyzed it a lot, independent of the absences, and it was our worst match of the past year,” said Inter Miami coach Tata Martino. “We expect an equally intense game Saturday, they have all their players also available. It will be a good test for us.”

Miami has not lost a league game since that defeat and is riding a three-game win streak during which it outscored opponents 10-4.

Messi is a big reason for the turnaround and for the team’s surge to the top of the Supporters Shield race with 26 points. The Argentine scored five goals over the past three games and added three assists. He has a league-high nine goals with seven assists over seven games and on Tuesday was named MLS Player of the Month for April.

He is coming off a two-goal, one-assist performance in a 4-1 win over the New England Revolution in front of a historic crowd of 65,600 at Gillette Stadium.

He shifted at times from the traditional No. 10 playmaker spot to more of a No. 9 striker position. Martino said Messi may be employed in different spots as the season progresses.

“To have Leo in those spaces is good news for us so he doesn’t have to expend so much energy…it’s not that he can’t do it, he is moving well on any part of the field, but we should not deny that in addition to being the best soccer player in the world who creates goals, he’s also a great finisher, “Martino said. “So, we have to find places for him in different facets of the game.”

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