In Miami Grand Prix Qualifying, Max Verstappen defeated Charles Leclerc’s challenge to win his sixth consecutive Formula 1 pole position.
The top 10 struggled to improve in the latter laps of the session, just as they had on Friday in the Sprint Qualifying, but Red Bull’s Verstappen had done enough with a time of 1:27.241 on his first flying lap in Q3.
Verstappen continued his career-best run of pole positions to close in on Ayrton Senna’s all-time record of eight, and his lead in the world championship now stands at 27 points after he won the Sprint earlier on Saturday.
Verstappen is in a good position to win his fifth race of the season and go after a fourth consecutive drivers’ championship, but Leclerc’s Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz may have an advantage over the other Red Bull driver, Sergio Perez, on Sunday because he finished third.
In his improved McLaren, Lando Norris finished fifth, ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, drivers of Mercedes, finished seventh and eighth, respectively.
After both Aston Martins were unexpectedly eliminated in the second qualifying round, Nico Hulkenberg of Haas and Yuki Tsunoda of RB completed the top ten. Fernando Alonso finished in 15th place.
Tsunoda’s RB teammate Daniel Ricciardo qualified 18th, unable to improve on his strong fourth place finish in the Sprint. He will start last because of a three-place grid penalty he received after an incident in the Chinese Grand Prix two weeks ago.
Miami GP Qualifying Timesheet
| Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1) Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:33.660 |
| 2) Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +0.141 |
| 3) Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | +0.214 |
| 4) Sergio Perez | Red Bull | +0.219 |
| 5) Lando Norris | McLaren | +0.353 |
| 6) Oscar Piasti | McLaren | +0.434 |
| 7) George Russell | Mercedes | +0.826 |
| 8) Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | +0.866 |
| 9) Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | +0.905 |
| 10) Yuki Tsunoda | RB | +0.951 |
| Knocked out in Q2 | ||
| 11) Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 1:28.222 |
| 12) Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 1:28.324 |
| 13) Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 1:28.371 |
| 14) Alex Albon | Williams | 1:28.413 |
| 15) Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 1:28.427 |
| Knocked out in Q1 | ||
| 16) Valtteri Bottas | Sauber | 1:28.463 |
| 17) Logan Sargeant | Williams | 1:28.487 |
| 18) Daniel Ricciardo | RB | 1:28.617 |
| 19) Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:28.619 |
| 20) Zhou Guanyu | Sauber | 1:28.824 |
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