Max Verstappen admitted his surprise at securing the sprint pole position at the Miami Grand Prix with what he described as a car that felt “pretty terrible” in the final qualifying shootout.
The Red Bull charger says he struggled for grip at the wheel of his RB20 in SQ3, managing only one lap on Pirelli’s soft compound.
However, despite his own difficulties, his rivals also faced challenges in improving their times on the quicker red-rimmed tyre, leaving Verstappen at the top of the time sheets.
McLaren’s Lando Norris, who had set the fastest time in the previous segment of qualifying, looked like a sure contender for pole, but the Briton ultimately ended up P9 after a mediocre first sector.
On his final flyer, Verstappen managed to find four tenths to edge Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by a mere tenth of a second. His Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, finished third, another tenth behind Leclerc.
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Verstappen’s surprised reaction upon learning he had secured pole position reflected the unexpected outcome.
“To be honest with you, it felt pretty terrible,” commented the three-time world champion. “I don’t know, maybe the last session was just incredibly difficult to get the tyres to work, because already in SQ2 I didn’t feel great. SQ3 I think it felt quite similar for me.
“I didn’t really improve a lot on the soft, but somehow we are first. I will happily take it, but it didn’t really feel enjoyable out there to drive for whatever reason.”
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Despite feeling confident about his chances of fighting for pole after Friday practice session, Verstappen’s optimism quickly faded when he hit the track for qualifying, witnessing Norris’ strong performance in both SQ1 and SQ2.
“In practice, it felt really, really nice. I was very comfortable and confident, in qualifying not so much,” he said.
“I thought after practice, I was quite confident that we could really fight for pole then in qualifying it didn’t really look like that for me.
“But somehow we still ended up in first. I don’t know what happened to the other cars in the last lap.”
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Verstappen surprised by sprint pole as RB20 felt ‘pretty terrible’ F1i.com.
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