Verstappen secures Miami Grand Prix pole with first lap in Q3

Max Verstappen took yet another pole position for the Miami Grand Prix despite failing to improve on his final flying lap.

The championship leader took the top spot on the grid for Sunday’s grand prix by a tenth of a second from the two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jnr.

Sergio Perez will start fourth in the second Red Bull, ahead of the two McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

Q1

Following the sprint race held earlier in the day, drivers had to readjust to maximising single-lap performance as the first phase of qualifying to decide the grid for the grand prix began.

Despite using tyres that were several laps old, Carlos Sainz Jnr set the early pace with a 1’28.159, a few hundredths of a second quicker than team mate Charles Leclerc on tyres that were five laps younger but also used. Sergio Perez was third fastest, also having set his first lap on used softs.

Max Verstappen complained about the feeling of his Red Bull’s clutch on the way out of the pit lane for his first run on used softs, however he was advised by race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase that “all looked good” on the team’s data. Verstappen posted a 1’28.023, a tenth faster than Sainz’s early effort to go quickest of all. After fitting fresh soft tyres, Perez improved to go quickest of all with Sainz going second and Lando Norris in third.

In the final minutes, Logan Sargeant was just two-thousandths of a second from progressing into Q2 in 16th. Pierre Gasly also needed to find time to stay in qualifying, with Kevin Magnussen, Zhou Guanyu and Alexander Albon also starting at the prospect of early elimination.

Gasly and Albon successfully improved enough to escape out of the bottom five, which dropped VValtteri Bottas out in 16th with Sargeant out in 17th after he was unable to follow team mate Albon through. Daniel Ricciardo was a surprise casualty in 18th, while Magnussen was unhappy with the amount of traffic he experienced heading into the hairpin before he was knocked out in 19th with Zhou slowest in 20th.

Zhou will also be investigated after qualifying for two separate incidents. The first was for failing to follow the race director’s instructions and pushing into the queue of cars exiting the pit lane at the start of the session and the second for crossing the pit exit line as he joined the track for his final run.

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Q1 result

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Q2

After the long queue of cars to exit the pits at the end of the first phase of qualifying, drivers seemed much less eager to head out on track as Q2 began. Eventually cars began trickling out onto the circuit, with the sole remaining RB of Yuki Tsunoda setting the initial benchmark with a 1’28.223.

Verstappen was inside the 1’27s with his first effort on used softs, but he was beaten by both Ferraris and McLarens who ran on new softs of their first attempts.

The yellow flags briefly appeared when Albon understeered around the turn 17 hairpin, coming to a stop before hitting the barrier. Fortunately, the Williams driver managed to manoeuvre his car out of the predicament and the session continued without interruption.

After both Mercedes drivers had been eliminated from the second session of Friday’s sprint qualifying, Lewis Hamilton was again in danger of being knocked out of Q2. However, he managed to jump up to third with his final lap in the dying minutes and secure his place in Q3, with team mate George Russell also safely through in eighth.

Lance Stroll was very close to reaching Q3, eliminated in 11th by less than half a tenth but four places ahead of team mate Fernando Alonso, who was also out slowest in 15th. Both Alpines of Gasly and Esteban Ocon were knocked out in 12th and 13th, with Albon the other driver eliminated in 14th.

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Q2 result

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Q3

Verstappen had been quickest in all three sessions over the weekend heading into grand prix qualifying, but his bid to continue his run at the end of Q3 was not going to be straightforward. The sprint race winner was informed as he left the pit lane that his team did not have any working telemetry on his car.

However, that did not prevent him from taking provisional pole position with his first effort of the final top 10 shoot-out, a tenth of a second ahead of Leclerc with Sainz taking third in the second Ferrari. Lando Norris opted for the medium tyre compound with his first run and went sixth with his first lap, almost six tenths from Verstappen’s best but easily quicker than the two Mercedes on fresh softs.

Mercedes chose to emulate Norris’s strategy for their final run by sending Russell and Hamilton both out on fresh mediums. Norris, however, opted not to stick with mediums and instead switched to new soft tyres for his last run.

Perez was the first of the pole contenders over the line to complete his final lap, but despite improving he was unable to match his team mate or either of the two Ferraris, leaving him in fourth. Verstappen failed to improve on his final lap, but he did not need to as neither Leclerc or Sainz went quicker on their final efforts, securing Verstappen yet another pole position to keep his perfect 2024 record intact.

Leclerc will start alongside the world champion in second on the grid, with Sainz third in the second Ferrari. Perez took fourth on the grid ahead of the two McLarens of Norris and Piastri.

Russell failed to improve on his last lap on mediums but will start one place ahead of team mate Hamilton in eighth after Hamilton gained a small amount of time with his mediums. Nico Hulkenberg and Yuki Tsunoda completed the top ten.

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Q3 result