Max Verstappen managed to take pole position for Saturday’s Miami GP Sprint race, but the Red Bull driver admitted that it had been a struggle to get up to speed over the duration of the qualifying session.
Charles Leclerc recovered from his practice spin to claim second place on tomorrow’s grid just ahead of Sergio Perez, while Daniel Ricciardo was a surprise fourth fastest for RB.
Lando Norris had looked the biggest threat to Verstappen, but he made a mistake in the first sector of his crucial SQ3 lap. Mercedes had another terrible day with neither George Russell nor Lewis Hamilton making the final cut.
For the second race weekend in a row, Formula 1 was locked into the Sprint format, meaning that after a single somewhat shortened practice session earlier in the day topped by Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri, it was straight into qualifying for Saturday’s short race.
Piastri had shown that McLaren’s substantial package of upgrades for the MCL38 had hit the ground running, while Ferrari’s day couldn’t have started off worse with the Charles Leclerc spinning out right at the start of FP1, although Carlos Sainz had been third fastest. But naturally the favourite for Sprint pole was as ever the Red Bull, even if Verstappen’s advantage over Piastri had been only a tenth a second.
SQ1: Norris and Piastri quickest from Alonso and Verstappen, both Williams miss the cut
The weather was still hot and sunny as the cars limbered up on pit lane and headed out for the 12 minute first round. As mandated by the Sprint rules, everyone was on a set of medium tyres with Leclerc quick to hit the track in order to make up for the time lost in FP1 only to have another scary moment in turn 8, the same place he went spinning in practice. This time he was able to continue but the lap was scratched allowing Zhou Guanyu to claim first honours with a time of 1:29.705s in the Sauber.
The Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso soon jumped ahead, with Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz unable to catch them with their first flying laps. Of course it was a different story when the Red Bulls got involved, Verstappen going top with a time of 1:28.601s which was just 0.038s ahead of Piastri who had managed to jump ahead of Sergio Perez in third.
More flying laps saw Yuki Tsunoda, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton spring into the top ten ahead of Alonso, who had quite a firm tap on the wall on his next run but seemingly without doing any significant damage to the AMR24. Leclerc meanwhile was getting his eye in and went third with his first proper effort, with Sainz also improving to fifth.
Piastrio was pushing hard and nearly made contact with Valtteri Bottas turning in on him into turn 1, the dawdling Finn apparently unaware of the fast approaching McLaren. Fortunately disaster was averted, but the stewards immediately flagged it for a full investigation after the session. Meanwhile Piastri’s team mate had gone fastes, Norris’ time of 1:27.939s proving to be a tenth quicker than Piastri’s response, and Alonso up to third ahead of Verstappen with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen having improved up to fifth just ahead of Russell.
But the top times were essentially moot and the important business was who would finish in the bottom five and be eliminated from the session. Nico Hulkenberg was just on the bubble but survived ahead of Pierre Gasly, Zhou and Bottas while the two Williams were bottom, with Albon locking up and cutting apex of the chicane in turn 14 meaning his best time was deleted for exceeding track limits.
SQ2: Norris stays top from Perez as both Mercedes cars fail to make final round
Almost before you could draw breath, the cars were being ushered out for the second ten minute round with Haas duo Magnussen and Hulkenberg leading the way out and only Verstappen and Tsunoda holding back initially. By rule, all 15 remaining cars were still sporting the medium tyres as they got back to work.
Magnussen set the initial benchmark of 1:28.614s but this was beaten by Hulkenberg, and then Perez took command of the session with a lap of 1:27.865s putting him ahead of Leclerc and Daniel Ricciardo who had brushed the wall but got away with it without harm to the RB. McLaren was next to put in a bid, going 0.268s quicker than the Mexican while Piastri slotted into fifth ahead of Alonso and Sainz.
Verstappen was now in play with four minutes to go, content to make just a single run which saw him go fourth – safe for the purposes of this round, but not the sort of dominant display we’ve come to expect and demand of the world champion. Meanwhile other drivers were scrambling to improve their time with both Mercedes drivers among those at risk of missing the cut. Russell ended up in P11 while Hamilton reported glancing the wall out of turn 16 as he was left in P12, joining Esteban Ocon, Kevin Magnussen and Yuki Tsunoda on the sidelines.
SQ3: Verstappen pips Leclerc to pole, Ricciardo flies to fourth on the Sprint grid
Despite the final top ten pole shoot-out being only eight minutes in length, no one was in a rush to get moving, since the softs they were now running would only allow a single hot lap in these conditions at Miami International Autodrome. It was all or nothing, with Hulkenberg and Stroll first out albeit on used sets of softs as if acknowledging that tenth was the highest they could aim for today, opting to retain new sets for tomorrow’s Grand Prix qualifying instead
Verstappen had come to life and set the fastest first sector time on this way to completing a lap of 1:27.641s despite a touch of oversteer through turn 15. It put him two tenths clear of his team mate in second, while Norris – the man who had looked like the biggest threat to Verstappen for pole – had made an error in the first sector and could only manage ninth.
Instead it was Leclerc who split the Bulls at the top, just a tenth off Verstappen’s superior run. Ricciardo remarkably secured fourth fastest for RB ahead of Carlos Sainz, with Piastri taking sicth ahead of the Astons of Stroll and Alonso.
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Miami GP: Verstappen works his way up to Sprint pole F1i.com.
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