Max Verstappen has also won pole for the Miami Grand Prix in Formula 1. After his victory earlier in the day in the sprint race, the world champion was also the fastest in qualifying for Sunday’s race. The 26-year-old driver in his Red Bull stayed ahead of both Ferraris of the Monegasque Charles Leclerc and the Spaniard Carlos Sainz with a lap of 1.27.241. Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Pérez finished fourth.
Verstappen had also taken pole for the sprint race on Friday. Then he was faster than Leclerc and Pérez. In the sprint race he led from start to finish.
At the Miami International Autodrome, Verstappen set his top time at the start of the third qualifying session. This made him 0.141 seconds faster than Leclerc and 0.214 than Sainz. In the last attempt, Verstappen started well, but was unable to improve himself. And so did its competitors.
It is Verstappen’s sixth pole in a row this season. He thought the car was slightly better than in Friday’s qualifying and in the sprint race. “We have improved the car a bit,” he admitted. “I don’t know what it is, but I find it very difficult to be even on this track. It’s difficult to get it all together in one lap and today was about finding that balance.”
Although he did not improve anymore, Verstappen was still satisfied with qualifying. “I think we did OK. This isn’t the most enjoyable lap for me because it’s so slippery and you don’t drive with a lot of confidence, but we got pole and that’s the most important thing.”
Daniel Ricciardo, who had finished well in fourth place in the sprint race, did not reach the second qualifying session with the car of the Visa Cash App RB team. Fernando Alonso failed to make it into the top 10 in the Aston Martin.
