Formula 1 ®
No stopping Max today! He takes pole in Miami sprint race following a terrible lap according to the World Champion. McLaren looking strong failed to maximize their opportunity. Leclerc having spun in FP1 surprises with P2 and Checo in third for tomorrow morning’s race.
Max grabbed pole position for Saturday’s sprint race at the Miami Grand Prix but was far from happy with the performance of his tyres. Verstappen finished 0.108 seconds ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc with his Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez third.
Max
“The practice session was really nice and I felt really confident and comfortable with the car. Honestly, I am quite surprised that we got P1 for the Sprint qualifying; it felt a bit different as I couldn’t really push or feel too confident on the tyres and get a nice balance on the car. On a track surface like this, it means that if you are a little bit out with the tyres it makes a big difference, but I think everyone else particularly struggled with the final run on the soft tyres. We have a few things to analyse and question why it felt a bit different from qualifying, but we should get it together fine for tomorrow. All in all, we have a great starting position for the Sprint and hopefully we can maximise this. Once the tyres stablilise, we should be back on track.”
McLaren threatened in the early stages but weren’t able to make the most of the soft tyres in SQ3 with Oscar Piastri sixth while Lando Norris will start from P9. Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso were seventh and eighth with Haas’s German driver Nico Hulkenberg 10th. It was a disappointing session for Mercedes who saw both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell go out in SQ2.
Earlier Verstappen posted the fastest time in practice while Leclerc managed just three laps. Verstappen, who has won four of the five Formula One races this season, posted a best practice lap time of 1:28.595 despite having some handling issues earlier in the session.
Checo
“It was a tricky session, we had one shot on that soft compound but we just didn’t maximise it and we got caught out a little bit with the grip, it changed here and there. Given that we only had a single go on that soft tyre it is down to a bit of luck about what the car is going to do. It is very challenging to go from just one practice into that session but it’s the same for everyone. I think the McLarens were the fastest cars out there, but they just couldn’t work it out on the soft compound. We have some work to do there and hopefully by tomorrow we can work it out. The aim will be to get as many points as possible in the Sprint and then we will go from there into the race. I think we are heading in the right direction and hopefully we can see a stronger race pace.”
Fernando
SPRINT QUALIFYING P8
“There was not a lot of grip to be found on track today so the conditions were quite tricky for Sprint Qualifying. But it was the same for everybody and we managed to get both cars into Q3 which was the target for today. We haven’t done a lot of running on track, so it’s a little unknown heading into the Sprint tomorrow. We’ll see what we can do and try to have some fun.”
Daniel
“I feel really good about today, I have some good confidence in the car and the second row is awesome! The team brought updates to the last few races, changed my chassis at the previous race in China, and brought a new floor here in Miami. Things look like they’re turning around and I’m very proud of what the team and myself did today. We had a good session starting from SQ1, even if I made a mistake in the first lap, so we were putting ourselves under a bit of pressure. Then I found a good lap and we started to build up from SQ2. I’m a bit surprised to be P4 with my lap because I expected to be a lot quicker with the soft compound. Instead, the soft tyres didn’t give much more compared to the mediums. I touched the wall twice; I told the team that I was definitely trying to get everything out of it. Let’s see what happens in the Sprint race, but it’s a lot nicer to be in the front rows. This can definitely help stay cleaner in the first phase of the race, if not involved in a bit of chaos. I’d love to get some points tomorrow.”
