Mercedes had a terrible start to the weekend with two early exits, and Max Verstappen defeated Charles Leclerc to win the sprint pole for the Miami Grand Prix.
Even on the lap when he took pole position, Verstappen fought with his Red Bull throughout the session, but the other competitors dropped out, leaving the world championship leader at the top of the leaderboard.
After missing the whole of Friday’s one practice session, Ferrari’s Leclerc bounced back to finish a tenth behind the Dutchman and take second place.
After leading both SQ1 and SQ2 in his greatly improved McLaren, Lando Norris looked the most likely to deny Verstappen the pole, but the British driver will only start ninth after suffering in SQ3.
As Daniel Ricciardo battles for his career in racing, he secured an extremely amazing fourth place for Red Bull’s junior team RB, while Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez finished third.
Lance Stroll won an unusual qualifying match over Fernando Alonso, his teammate from Aston Martin, and Carlos Sainz of Ferrari finished fifth ahead of Piastri of McLaren. They finished seventh and eighth, respectively.
George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were eliminated in the second qualifying round by Mercedes, who also improved the Miami International Autodrome. This maintained Mercedes’ miserable start to the season.
Miami GP Sprint Qualifying Timesheet
| Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1) Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:27.641 |
| 2) Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +0.108 |
| 3) Sergio Perez | Red Bull | +0.235 |
| 4) Daniel Ricciardo | RB | +0.403 |
| 5) Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | +0.462 |
| 6) Oscar Piasti | McLaren | +0.520 |
| 7) Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | +0.734 |
| 8) Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | +0.778 |
| 9) Lando Norris | McLaren | +0.831 |
| 10) Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | +0.835 |
| Knocked out in SQ2 | ||
| 11) George Russell | Mercedes | 1:28.343 |
| 12) Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:28.371 |
| 13) Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 1:28.379 |
| 14) Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:28.614 |
| 15) Yuki Tsunoda | RB | No time set |
| Knocked out in SQ1 | ||
| 16) Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 1:29.185 |
| 17) Zhou Guanyu | Sauber | 1:29.267 |
| 18) Valtteri Bottas | Sauber | 1:29.360 |
| 19) Logan Sargeant | Williams | 1:29.551 |
| 20) Alex Albon | Williams | 1:29.858 |
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