Miami qualifying result: Verstappen takes pole and beats Ferraris

The starting grid for the Miami Grand Prix has been announced. Pole position was just taken by Max Verstappen at the Miami International Autodrome. He will share the front row of the grid with Charles Leclerc tomorrow. The top three was completed by none other than Carlos Sainz.

Q1

The first qualifying section started very busy. The drivers formed a large traffic jam in the pit lane, and everyone started chasing a fast lap. Traditionally, Max Verstappen waited much longer before taking to the track, after six minutes he entered the asphalt and recorded the fastest time.

It did not come naturally for Verstappen, as he complained about problems with his clutch. It was resolved quickly and he reported no further issues. There were many problems in the last sector of the track, because traffic jams caused dangerous situations. Daniel Ricciardo did his best but was unable to follow up on his strong result. He dropped out, just like Valtteri Bottas, Logan Sargeant, Kevin Magnussen and Guanyu Zhou.

Q2

The second part of qualifying started quietly. For several minutes there was no car on the track, and the focus was on the wealthy spectators in the fake marina. After a few minutes the drivers entered the track and the spectacle could begin.

Fernando Alonso was clearly struggling with his Aston Martin and surprisingly even dropped out in this session. It was a disastrous qualifying for Aston Martin, because Lance Stroll also found his waterloo. Alexander Albon almost found the wall in the last sector, but he kept his Williams intact. He dropped out together with Alonso and Stroll. This also applied to Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon.

Q3

Led by Nico Hülkenberg, all ten remaining drivers took to the track in Q3. Verstappen started very quickly and he was extremely fast in his first run. It seemed like it was going to be a joke, because there still seemed to be a lot of potential in many drivers. Mercedes decided to send their drivers onto the track on mediums in the second run, something Lando Norris also did in Q2. Remarkably, no one was able to improve in the second run, so Verstappen’s pole was never really in danger at any time.