Max Verstappen of Red Bull defeated Charles Leclerc of Ferrari to claim pole position in the Miami Grand Prix’s sprint event.
The Dutchman beat Leclerc by 0.108 seconds, while Sergio Perez of Red Bull finished third, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo’s RB, which finished an unexpected fourth.
Lando Norris of McLaren seemed to waste a chance to challenge Verstappen for pole position after a sluggish opening lap.
Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, two Mercedes drivers, could only finish 11th and 12th.
Carlos Sainz of Ferrari finished fifth, Oscar Piastri of McLaren led the Aston Martins driven by Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso, Norris, and Nico Hulkenberg of Haas.
Norris was fastest in the first and second sectors of qualifying and in the second and third sectors of his penultimate lap in the previous session, but he lagged behind in the first sector by 0.8 seconds.
Norris gets nearly all of McLaren’s big upgrade, while Piastri has only around half of it. However, the British driver claimed he had made too many mistakes.
Norris remarked, “I just pushed too hard, simple as that.” “Car was in a great mood. To be honest, it was just silly—a few errors in Turn One, followed by a steep decline.
“Apologies, as the team has performed admirably. The updates are functional; overall, I’m happy with everything, but not everything.
Verstappen expressed his surprise at starting from pole position, stating that the car felt swift in race trim but not in low-fuel conditions.
“To be honest, it felt really terrible,” the Dutchman remarked. Perhaps it was just very tough to get the tires to work during the previous session. On the soft, I didn’t really get any better, but we still finished first.
“The car seemed like it was in a pretty good window throughout practice, but that didn’t feel the same during qualifying. I was not at all content.
“In Q3, I noticed that I was only moving 0.2 seconds faster and that I had no grip. They informed me that it was P1, and although I felt it must be a joke, we’ll accept it.
