Qualifying in Miami now live!

Open session ticker now!

Qualifying begins in ten minutes and we’ll move the action back to our session ticker. So here is a short break, after the end of the qualification we will continue with the votes for Saturday.

And if you want to know how you can watch Formula 1 in Miami in the live stream, you can find out here!

No penalty for starting crash

Fernando Alonso clearly identified Lewis Hamilton as the culprit for the crash in Turn 1 earlier. The race stewards see it differently and have not issued any penalties.

They justify this by saying that the two Aston Martin drivers were the trigger and that Hamilton then made his “contribution” to the chaos.

However, in the opinion of the race stewards, no driver was solely responsible for the situation – not even Hamilton. Here is the reasoning in full:

“From the video evidence, it appeared that there were at least three collisions that occurred – the first between Cars 14 & 18 and then between Car 44 and Car 14 and finally between Car 18 and Car 4.”

“While it appeared to us that the incidents began with Cars 14 & 18, the sudden and fast arrival of Car 44 contributed to the various collisions.”

“However, we were not able to identify one or more drivers wholly or predominantly to blame for the various collisions or any one of them.”

“Also keeping in mind that this was in Turn 1 of Lap 1 where greater latitude is given to drivers for incidents, we took no further action.”

Ricciardo with a handicap

A little reminder: The Australian already received a grid penalty at the last race in China. He has to move back three positions on the starting grid tomorrow.

Let’s keep that in mind. Even if he makes it into Q3 straight away, that doesn’t automatically mean that he will start from the top 10 tomorrow.

Norris car ready for qualifying

Fortunately for the team, the damage to the McLaren remained manageable. The car was repaired so that Norris can take part in the qualification as normal.

Also important: The team reports that they have enough spare parts with them. That’s not a given, because McLaren updated the car this weekend.

And how scarce the parts are is shown by the fact that only Norris has the complete update on the car. Teammate Piastri only received around half of the new parts.

At least there were enough spare parts to repair the Norris car.

Never been on pole…

Exciting: Max Verstappen has won all Formula 1 races in Miami so far. 2022, 2023 and now today also the sprint. But: He has never been on pole in a main race here before.

In 2022, Charles Leclerc was ahead in qualifying, while his teammate Sergio Perez was ahead last year. But if Verstappen manages it for the first time today, it would be his seventh pole in a row!

Only four other drivers have achieved this before him in the history of the premier class. More about this in our photo gallery:

Perez: Start cost me a chance of P2

The Mexican briefly fell behind Ricciardo at the start – and thus lost all chances of a better result. He reports: “Right after the safety car, as soon as I was able to use DRS, I managed to get past Daniel.”

“But then I think I was already three seconds away from Charles. Considering how short the race is, that was it,” he shrugs and explains that the sprint was just “a little too short.” .

Nevertheless, P3 is not the end of the world for him. And later in qualifying he will have his next chance. Qualification for the main race begins in less than two hours!

Magnussen has to go to the race stewards

Also this: The Dane has to go to the race stewards at 2:15 p.m. local time (right now). He is said to have violated Article 12.2.1.l of the FIA’s International Sports Code. It literally says:

“Any of the following offenses, in addition to any offenses specifically referred to previously or subsequently, shall be deemed to be a breach of these rules:”

[…]

“Any violation of the principles of fairness in competition, behavior in an unsportsmanlike manner or attempt to influence the result of a competition in a way that is contrary to sporting ethics”

Roughly translated: You must not do anything that violates the fundamentals of fairness in sport and it is forbidden to influence the result of a race in an unsportsmanlike way.

Did Magnussen do that today? We’ll of course keep an eye on the matter!

“Very strong race”: special praise for Ricciardo

“It was a very strong race from him. He defended himself fairly but incredibly skillfully against Sainz, who was probably in the faster car,” Helmut Marko praised the Australian ORF.

“He did it over the race distance, and fourth place is the corresponding reward,” said Marko, who emphasized: “It was an impeccable performance.” But there is also praise for the second Racing Bulls driver.

Because Tsunoda started on the soft, “where we all thought it would collapse after ten or twelve laps,” said Marko. But that wasn’t the case. “Both in the points, and all four cars [von Red Bull] in the top 8.”

“This is a sensational result,” celebrates Marko.

Hamilton: I’m not mad at Magnussen

The Dane admitted that he deliberately slowed down Hamilton. The record world champion himself says: “That’s pretty honest of him. I think it’s cool. We had a good race. A few times it was at the limit. But I love that.”

“I love it when people drive hard, so I didn’t find it frustrating at all or anything,” emphasizes Hamilton, who explains that it was just good teamwork from Haas. In the end he ended up with no points anyway because of his own penalty.

Teammate George Russell also missed the top 8 and reports: “I think the race was just incredibly boring for everyone. It was just a DRS train and in Formula 1 you can’t overtake if you don’t have DRS.”

“And if all cars have DRS, you can [auch] Don’t overtake,” he shrugs his shoulders. After all, he’s “definitely more confident than yesterday” for qualifying afterwards, says Russell. Let’s see.

Alonso: Hamilton “ruined” the race for many

The Spaniard explains opposite DAZN after the crash in turn 1: “I think [Hamilton] “Ruined the race for some people, especially Norris, who has a very fast car and was left on the track in this incident.”

For him it almost doesn’t matter because: “We had no interest in the sprint race either, we just wanted to check the dismantling and other things for tomorrow, and in the end we did it. For us it’s free practice, not really a race.”

He mocks the incident in Turn 1 with Hamilton: “We’ll see what happens [die Rennkommissare] decide. I think they won’t do anything because he’s not Spanish…”

Hülkenberg: Magnussen wouldn’t have waited either

The German himself explains Sky satisfied: “I would have signed up for two points before the race and would have liked to take them with me. It was an unspectacular race for the most part. I think we made the points possible in turn 1.”

“Lewis came through the inside like a dart and braked very, very late. I was still able to choose the inside line and was able to avoid all the problems on the outside and immediately made up a few positions,” he reports.

About Magnussen’s statement that he could have waited for him and given him DRS, he says: “The air is so thin with us, one small mistake and you’ll go off drinking. I think it’s every man for himself.”

“I think if it had been the other way around, he wouldn’t necessarily have done it,” said Hülkenberg.

Magnussen: I sacrificed myself for the team

For the Dane it was like in Jeddah again. He admits: “All the penalties were deserved. There’s no doubt about that. But I had to play the game again.” Because of his maneuvers he secured P7 for his teammate Hülkenberg.

He reveals: “At the beginning of the race I made up a lot of positions and was in P8. I was able to protect myself well from Lewis because I had DRS from Nico and a good pace. But then Nico cut the chicane and I lost the DRS.”

In his opinion, Hülkenberg could then have taken his foot off the accelerator “to give me the DRS to protect me, because then we would have easily been in P7 and P8. Instead, I was really vulnerable to Lewis,” said Magnussen.

“We started fighting like crazy and I just had to open a gap like I did in Jeddah,” he reveals, admitting that he used “stupid tactics” against Hamilton.

He didn’t like that himself, “but ultimately I did my job as a team player,” says Magnussen, who emphasizes: “Nico got his points because I opened the gap for him. Lewis and Tsunoda couldn’t catch him.”

Leclerc: Didn’t want to take too many risks

The Ferrari driver had his only chance to beat Verstappen today at the start. He reports: “Of course I didn’t want to risk too much, because we also have qualifying later.” Therefore, he was not at his absolute limit in a duel.

“We both braked very, very late. But eventually he was able to hold the position. Then I pushed very hard. But in the first few laps they had a little more speed,” he admits.

“Then we had a similar breakdown. Tomorrow it’s a long race. So qualifying will be important to start as far up front as possible. And then hopefully we can put them under pressure with our strategy,” said Leclerc.

He emphasizes that he would like to fight for pole later in qualifying.

Verstappen: Everything wasn’t perfect yet

The world champion reported after his victory: “China felt really good. The car was really, really good to drive. It was a little more difficult for me here, so there are still a few things to improve.”

The sprint was “not quite perfect,” he emphasizes, and explains: “We still have a bit of work to do. At least we can now fine-tune the car a little with the new format.”

“Hopefully we can improve a little in qualifying and especially in the race tomorrow. But a win is good, I’m happy about it. And it also gives us a few good points that we can look at to improve,” said Verstappen.

Open session ticker now!

The sprint in Miami will begin in a few minutes and we’ll move the action to our session ticker for now. So there’s a short break here, after the end of the sprint things continue as normal at this point with voices and the like.

And if you want to know how you can watch Formula 1 in Miami in the live stream, you can find out here!