REACTIONS: What teams had to say after sprint qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix

The Formula One field travelled to Miami for the first of three races to be held in the United States of America this year. The weekend features the special sprint format for the second time this year, but the unusual schedule was not enough to unsettle championship runaway leader Max Verstappen.

Red Bull looked fast all day long, but McLaren appeared to be a firm contender for glory. However, Max Verstappen delivered when it really mattered, clinching his fifth pole position of the season. His team-mate Sergio Perez looked vulnerable on the medium compound, but he got his act together on the softs in SQ3 to secure third place for the sprint race.

Max Verstappen, 1st, 1:27.641

“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.”

Sergio Perez, 3rd, 1:27.876

“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.”

Charles Leclerc, 2nd, 1:27.749

“I’m happy with my qualifying today as I can see that the work I put in over the last few weeks to improve tyre preparation has paid off. It was a tough one, as with only one timed lap completed in free practice, I had to go flat out straight into qualifying but I felt comfortable in the car from the start of the session.

“We’ll go for it in the Sprint Race tomorrow, we don’t know much about the race pace for now but let’s hope we have a good one and go into Sunday with good chances for the win.”

Carlos Sainz, 5th, 1:28.103

“It hasn’t been a great Friday. The feeling in the car changed between sessions and we struggled more during the Sprint Qualifying.
The lap on the Soft tyre however was coming together more or less ok, but I went for it into turn 17 and made a costly mistake which dropped me to P5.

“Tomorrow we’ll try to recover and then we have another chance to work on the car and turn it around for the Grand Prix qualifying and the main race on Sunday.”

Daniel Ricciardo, 4th, 1:28.044

“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.”

Yuki Tsunoda, 15th, No time set in SQ2

“SQ1 was good, so the car was there but in the end, we weren’t able to maximise the performance. We tried with one push but it didn’t work out. I also wasn’t able to put it all together. In hindsight, two pushes maybe would’ve worked better for us but the pace the car showed does give me confidence for the remainder of the weekend.”

Lando Norris, 9th, 1:28.472

“The car was feeling very good throughout the session. In SQ3 we just seemed to overheat the tyres in the first sector which compromised the rest of the lap, but the team have done a good job getting the upgrades here and they are working. I’m happy with the progress we’ve made. The pace of the car is very good, let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”

Oscar Piastri, 6th, 1:28.161

“P6. Not too bad, all things considered. It could have been a slightly smoother run on the Soft tyre but it’s still a decent starting spot for the Sprint. I think a few cars are a little bit out of position, so it will be interesting to see what we can do tomorrow as the car seems quick. Even without the full upgrade package we’ve made a step forward, so thank you to the team for getting us to this point.” 

Fernando Alonso, 8th, 1:28.419

“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.”

Lance Stroll, 7th, 1:28.375

“It was a good Sprint Qualifying, for sure. We chose to run a used Soft tyre in SQ3 and managed to qualify P7, which sets us up well for tomorrow. Our aim will be trying to pick up some points in the Sprint event.”

Haas

Nico Hulkenberg, 10th, 1:28.476

“This morning I didn’t feel good in the car at all, but sometimes it takes a moment, and we managed to clean up the set-up for this afternoon. It’s tricky as you know with the Sprint you only get one practice session, and we got a little bit lucky in SQ1 as I was on the verge of going out as it wasn’t very clean on my side. In SQ2, it was very clean and well executed. In SQ3, we ran only a used set of softs so we have more for tomorrow and Sunday but it was tight out there.”

Kevin Magnussen, 14th, 1:28.614

“I had great pace and showed that in SQ1, but I wasn’t able to do a good lap in SQ2. It went wrong in Turn 7, I braked too late and didn’t make the apex, and the lap was gone. The previous lap before that, I had traffic so didn’t have that as a banker either but the pace in the car is good. Let’s see tomorrow as I think we have a car that can overtake here and hopefully we have the pace in the sprint to move forward as well.”

Lewis Hamilton, 12th, 1:28.371

“The car felt really good in FP1, and I was happy with the balance. Unfortunately, in Sprint Qualifying, the balance changed, and the car regressed. We were close to making it through to SQ3, but we were a decent chunk of being at the front. Starting from P12, the Sprint will be tough for us. I am not expecting a huge amount from there as it is not an easy circuit to either follow or overtake at. We will be trying our best to get the car into the points though.”

George Russell, 11th, 1:28.343

“In FP1, the Soft tyre was feeling really good on our car. The pace was looking good but on the Medium compound in Sprint Qualifying, we just couldn’t get the car in the sweet spot. We found ourselves on the wrong side of the cut-off. It was very tight out there, with just a few hundredths of a second making it through to SQ3. We shouldn’t have been that close to being knocked out though and we will work hard this evening to find improvements.

“I’ve got no doubt we will move forward in the Sprint tomorrow. We need to get over our qualifying woes as it is always difficult starting on the back foot.”

Esteban Ocon, 13th, 1:28.379

“It is positive that we progressed to the second part of Sprint Qualifying, but it is obviously disappointing to be so close and miss out on the top-10 by only half a tenth. It is also small encouraging signs that the gap is reducing. I was happy with the first lap in SQ2 and how the car felt, and the grip increased through the lap.

“But I pushed too hard on the second lap and struggled with the tyres towards the end. I was up in the first sector but could not hold it over the lap, which is also a good learning for Qualifying for the Grand Prix tomorrow. There are a few things we can work on and fix overnight and try to move forward in the Sprint and make that next step in Qualifying.”

Pierre Gasly, 16th, 1:29.185

“The car definitely felt better today and we were capable of progressing through SQ1. My first lap was strong but on my second attempt I lost the car through the fast changes of direction at Turns 5 and 6. That was not ideal and the lap was over from there with no way of improving.

“It’s a pity as it felt much more together today other than that snap on the lap which counts. We’ll spend some time to figure out a few things and see what we can improve tomorrow. We have the Sprint Race then Qualifying for Sunday’s Grand Prix in the afternoon, the one which counts the most. There’s much more to come from me this weekend.”

Valtteri Bottas, 18th, 1:29.360

“Today has been a rather challenging day in the office. We made big changes in terms of balance after the practice session, and the car felt quite different; there has been somewhat of a track reset as well, and it felt like we were missing some grip. On top of that, we unfortunately got caught in traffic during my push lap.

“I went off track after a close encounter with a McLaren, and the tyres never really recovered their temperature after that. Tomorrow’s starting positions for the Sprint are definitely not ideal; there is still a lot we can learn about the car, though, and as it’s still early in the weekend, we can try and turn this around for Sunday’s main event.”

Zhou Guanyu, 17th, 1:29.267

“Unfortunately, today didn’t go as we expected. We weren’t happy with where we were this morning during FP1 and, although we managed to address some of these issues, we couldn’t get the balance of the car right for qualifying. I struggled quite a bit to find grip, which made it difficult to make it out of SQ1. We will investigate the root cause of this: tomorrow’s Sprint race is actually an opportunity for us to learn more about our race pace, and I am positive that we can have a reset before Qualifying and take a step forward with our performance.”

Alex Albon, 20th, 1:29.858

“We tend to struggle a little in Sprint Qualifying sessions when using the harder compounds; we also changed quite a bit between FP1 and Qualifying and unfortunately, the gamble didn’t pay off. The things we changed were in the right direction, including a few aero pieces but they weren’t quite what we expected and ultimately, we over-compromised. We’ll wait until the Sprint race, then change the car setup and hopefully that will improve things.”

Logan Sargeant, 19th, 1:29.551

“We had good pace in that session with a lot of potential, but I had a huge snap in Sector 1 which ended any chance of progressing. Unfortunately, in Sprint Qualifying you only get one set of tyres. We’ll see how the Sprint race goes tomorrow.”