Dutchman Max Verstappen has achieved the 6th pole position of the season thus extending his 100% rate at qualifying rounds this season. The current championship leader received his 38th pole position ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
The gap between Verstappen’s time (1:27.241) and Leclerc’s and Sainz’ was +0.141 and +0.214 respectively.
Qualifying 1
Logan Sargeant led a pack to open the first round of the qualifying session that will set a grid for Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix.
Sauber’s driver Zhou Guanyu was under investigation following contact with RB’s Daniel Ricciardo in the pitlane. Although no direct contact would result in the loss of certain car parts, the Chinese driver asserted himself in front of the Australian who was already in the line waiting for the green light.
Midway into the first round of the qualifying shootout standard top 5 teams showed a pace that would drag them safely into the 2nd round.
6 minutes to go, Sainz leads from Norris, Verstappen, and Piastri as the gap is shrunk by less than one hundred a second.
In the meantime, ‘local hero’ Logan Sargeant made a complaint about Yuki Tsunoda compromising his hot lap. Japanese driver from the RB outfit ‘parked’ in the middle of turn 17 amid preparations to start its flying lap.
With the expected track evolution all of the teams sent their drivers out with 2 minutes to go in the hope of improving the time. Both RB drivers are the first ones to be in danger of getting eliminated.
Perez is the only driver that stayed in the garage with his 1:27.772 seemingly being enough to proceed into the next round.
Bottas, Sargeant, Ricciardo, Magnussen, and Zhou are eliminated from the first qualifying round.
Verstappen pipped down Perez for 8 hundreds of the second to gain first place. Norris closed the top 3.
The biggest surprise of the first qualifying round is certainly Alpine with Gasly ending up in 5th and Ocon in 11th. It is yet to be seen whether Alpine improved, however, this result is a positive wind to the back-to-enstone-based team.
Qualifying 2
The first timed lap was set by Yuki Tsunoda with the time of 1:28.223.
However soon after RB’s driver got jumped by Verstappen, then both McLaren drivers, and then ultimately by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who set a time of 1:27.533.
Alpine continued with a surprisingly strong showing with 10th and 11th place 6 and a half minutes to go.
A brief yellow flag was caused by Williams’ Alexander Albon who locked up in turn 17 and was quick to mention how his tires are ‘gone’.
It is expected that both Hamilton and Alonso will bring out the excitement for the closure of the second qualifying round as both drivers are currently in the elimination zone.
Alonso’s dreadful Saturday continues as the Spaniard is unable to improve ending up in 15th. Moreover, the 2-time world champion has once again managed to finish behind his Canadian teammate.
On the other side, Hamilton finished a session in third place with 164 thousand the second behind leader Leclerc.
Stroll, Gasly, Ocon, Albon, and Alonso have been eliminated from the second qualifying round.
Qualifying 3
The battle for the pole position continued with a final 12-minute sprint. The 10 best drivers are expected to do two rounds of flying laps in the final qualifying round.
The provisional grid for Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix is as follows: Verstappen with 1:27.241 followed by the Ferrari’s duo of Leclerc and Sainz who are split by less than a tenth of a second.
Verstappen’s teammate sits in 5th and is ‘sandwiched’ by two Mclarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
Hamilton wrestled with an oversteer in turn 11 which caused him a significant drop in time. Currently 7-time world champion sits in 8th.
Verstappen’s biggest threats for the pole have been unable to improve time with Ferrari’s sector times being painted in yellow.
Track evolution was not effective as positions were barely changed. Sergio Perez is an instance as Mexican overtook Piastri to take a 2nd row with Carlos Sainz.
Mercedes had another invisible session with Russell and Hamilton finishing in 7th and 8th respectively.
Nico Hülkenberg and Yuki Tsunoda finalized a top 10 grid.