After the morning sprint race, Max Verstappen made sure to complete a perfect day in Miami.
The Red Bull driver set the fastest time in qualifying at the Miami Grand Prix on Saturday to start on the front row for the race on Sunday. He is perfect in qualifying this season with six leading positions on as many occasions.
Verstappen beat his two rivals at Ferrari, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz at the end of the last qualifying session.
“It was very difficult to achieve a perfect lap, I don’t know why but it wasn’t possible to get the tires to the right temperature today (Saturday). It was a bit frustrating, it’s not fun to drive in these conditions. The car was still a little better than yesterday (Friday) so that’s positive for the race,” he explained.
As during the sprint, Verstappen was not ultra-dominant but it was enough to relegate the two Scuderia single-seaters to 141 and 214 thousandths respectively.
“I’m happy, second is a good starting position. I didn’t change the car settings much after the sprint but the conditions were very difficult because the grip was hit or miss,” said Leclerc.
Mexican Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) took fourth place, ahead of the two McLarens of Briton Lando Norris and Australian Oscar Piastri.
Aston Martin drivers Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso were each eliminated in Q2. The Quebecer took 11th place while his teammate could not do better than 15th time in this session.
The fourth row will be occupied by the two Mercedes of the British George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, while the Top 10 is completed by the German Nico Hülkenberg (Haas) and the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls).
The Australian Daniel Ricciardo (Racing Bulls), who took a superb fourth place during the sprint in the middle of the day, failed to repeat his feat and will start 18th on Sunday.
Under the eyes of Zinedine Zidane and American football star Patrick Mahomes, three-time SuperBowl winner who recently invested in the Alpine team, the two Frenchmen Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon took 12th and 13th places in qualifying.
