(Motorsport-Total.com) – After his victory in the sprint on Saturday afternoon in Miami, Max Verstappen also secured pole position for the Grand Prix on Sunday. The Red Bull driver won the seventh qualifying in a row and relegated Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to second and third place.
Max Verstappen has secured pole position for the Miami Grand Prix
Verstappen already took the lead on his first Q3 lap (1:27.241 minutes), at that point 0.141 seconds ahead of Leclerc and 0.214 seconds ahead of Sainz. Lando Norris (McLaren) completed his first Q3 lap on the harder medium tires and was 0.581 seconds behind in 6th place.
And it stayed that way, because none of the top three could improve in the second attempt. However, Sergio Perez (Red Bull/+0.219), who moved to fourth place, improved his time, followed by Lando Norris (+0.353) and Oscar Piastri (both McLaren/+0.434). Norris drove a little faster on the soft tires than on the medium tires and improved to P5.
George Russell (+0.826) and Lewis Hamilton (+0.866) improved compared to the sprint qualifying on Friday, this time making it into the top 10 and securing the provisional fourth row of the grid.
Nico Hülkenberg (Haas) came ninth with another strong performance. In Q3 he beat his only direct opponent Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls) by 0.046 seconds – and in the end he was less than a tenth of a second behind the two Mercedes drivers.
On the subject:
Qualifying result
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Stream: Analysis live on YouTube (3:00 a.m.)
Why couldn’t anyone improve in the end?
At least the top 3 were slower on their second Q3 lap than on the first. “Everyone tried to get something out of it. But that didn’t work because these tire characteristics couldn’t be calculated,” explains Helmut Marko in an interview with ORF. “That shows that no one had it under control. And Max found the best compromise in terms of driving.”
The problem: Miami is a track that pushes the tire compounds to the limit when the asphalt temperature is more than 40 degrees. Keeping the tires in the correct temperature window over a complete lap is an enormous challenge for the drivers. If you drive too fast in one sector, the grip can be gone in the next.
“It was very difficult to get the tires in the right window for the entire lap. But that was the case for everyone,” explains Leclerc. “It’s a lottery,” adds Sainz, because: “After every lap you have the feeling that you could have been two or three tenths faster.” And Verstappen thinks: “It’s no fun to drive like that.”
At least Red Bull now seems to have these special conditions better under control than on Friday. “It definitely felt more predictable. Hopefully that will help me in the race tomorrow,” says Verstappen. Meanwhile, Marko is “a bit surprised that McLaren couldn’t show the speed they had in the sprint.”
How strong was Hülkenberg?
Hülkenberg almost beat the two Mercedes. He handled the difficult conditions well, while Mercedes didn’t really know how best to manage tire temperatures. Russell and Hamilton even drove their second Q3 run on medium tires. In the end, Hülkenberg was less than a tenth of a second behind them.
“It’s going well,” says the only German in the Formula 1 field happily. “Already bagged two points in the morning, now achieved another Q3. Definitely one of the best Saturdays with Haas, and perhaps in my career too. We can’t get much more out of it, we can’t ask for it. So I’m very, very satisfied.”
Which drivers were eliminated in Q1 and Q2?
There was a little surprise in Q1. Because Daniel Ricciardo (Racing Bulls), still man of the race at lunchtime with fourth place in the sprint, was eliminated in the first segment in 18th place, 0.293 seconds behind Tsunoda in P12 and 0.164 seconds behind Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), who finished in 15th. just made the cut.
“Unfortunately, Daniel had difficulties in turn 17. He said he had no pressure at the back,” explains Peter Bayer, CEO of the Racing Bulls, in an interview with Sky. “We didn’t actually change anything. The idea with two outlaps was so that the drivers could adjust to the lower amount of fuel compared to the sprint. That didn’t work for some reason.”
Valtteri Bottas (Sauber), who was only 0.010 seconds behind Alonso, was 16th. In the other positions: Logan Sargeant (Williams), Ricciardo, Kevin Magnussen (Haas), who complained about the traffic jam in the last corner, and Guanyu Zhou (Sauber).
In Q2, Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), who was only 0.022 seconds slower than Hülkenberg, was hit; as well as Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon (both Alpine), Alexander Albon (Williams) and Alonso.
Where can you watch the race live?
After Shanghai two weeks ago, Miami is the second of six sprint race weekends in the 2024 Formula 1 season (click here for the complete calendar!) – with a changed format: the sprint qualifying took place on Friday afternoon, the sprint race on Saturday morning, the qualifying for the Grand Prix on Saturday afternoon and the Grand Prix as always on Sunday.
In Germany, the Miami Grand Prix will not be broadcast on free TV. If you want to watch the race live, you have to use a payment service. The start is on Sunday at 10:00 p.m. German time, with a six-hour time difference between Munich and Miami. (Click here for the TV overview!)
One Analysis of (not only) sporting events However, Kevin Scheuren and Christian Nimmervoll deliver daily on the Formula1.de YouTube channel – free of charge for all users, without any pay-TV barrier. The F1 show takes place on the night of Saturday to Sunday at 3:00 a.m. German time (after the race at 4:00 a.m.) and offers channel members the opportunity to ask questions in live chat.
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