Formula 1 News: Verstappen wins pole for Miami Sprint Race

World Champion Max Verstappen made a big mistake in his Q3 lap, but still turned a lap of 1m27.641s to win pole position for the Miami GP Sprint race at the Miami International Autodrome.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Verstappen was only 4th fastest in Q1 and Q2 but came out of nowhere in Q3 on Pirelli soft tires to nip the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc by 0.108s

Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez was 3rd fastest, 0.235s behind the Dutchman.

It was Verstappen’s first Sprint Qualifying pole this year. He also topped the morning’s practice session.

“To be honest with you, it felt pretty terrible,” said Verstappen. Maybe that last session, it was just really difficult to get the tires to work. I didn’t improve much on the soft but I’ll take it.

“It didn’t feel enjoyable to drive – practice was really comfortable, I was quite confident we could fight for pole. But qualifying it didn’t look like that for me – I don’t know what happened to the other cars on that last lap.”

A resurging Daniel Ricciardo, out to prove he is not washed up, qualified an excellent 4th in his Via Cash App RB.

Carlos Sainz Jr. rounded out the top-5 in the second Ferrari, 0.462s behind.

Lando Norris, using a major McLaren upgrade, look set to take pole, but when he strapped on the soft red tires, he actually went slower than on the mediums. He failed to get the soft tires in the right temperature window.

Both Mercedes drivers were knocked out in Q2 and to make matters worse, Lewis Hamilton faces a possible penalty due to a pit lane violation – his crew were not wearing their helmets.

Two Bulls and a Ferrari in the top three – so far, so good. But Ricciardo in fourth is really the odd man out. He looks well set to score his first points of the season, not that long after Christian Horner came out swinging and said the Australian really needed to up his game.

That was a mightily strange session really. Verstappen didn’t nail his lap but still came out on top, McLaren went backwards on the softs, Piastri out-qualified his team mate despite not having all the upgrades and Stroll did likewise to Alonso despite being on much older tires.

Given all those topsy turvy events, what will happen in the Sprint itself is anyone’s guess again. Conditions have been tricky today, but the track will rubber in tomorrow especially during the Sprint itself.

Miami GP Sprint Race Qualifying