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Max Verstappen claimed pole position for the Miami Grand Prix, securing the place for Red Bull with an immense lap at the Hard Rock Stadium in what was an enormously competitive session. Verstappen beat the McLaren of Lando Norris into second and the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli into third by the tiniest of margins. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was fourth and Mercedes’ George Russell was fifth.
Lewis Hamilton’s hopes of a strong qualifying after taking third in the sprint were dashed as he failed to make it to Q3, going out in 12th, his first exit in Q2 since he joined Ferrari this year.
Verstappen set the pole with a blistering final lap in Q3, threading the needle in Miami with an attacking assurance that was a reminder of just how quick he can be when he has confidence in his ride.
This was the perfect comeback for the world champion after he was penalised in the sprint race for an unsafe release in the pit lane, dropping him from fourth to 17th place. The Dutch driver, who became a father for the first time with the birth of his baby daughter, Lily, on Friday, had dropped to 21 points behind Piastri in the world championship but with pole has a great opportunity to claw some of it back on Sunday.
After managing only sixth in Bahrain with a car that lacked balance, Verstappen was blunt that he did not believe he could compete for the title as things stood. The team held discussions after that race to consider how best to address the issues but had been honest in that no quick fix was expected with a disconnect between wind tunnel predictions and real world performance at the heart of their inability to solve the problems.
But they came back well with pole and second in Saudi Arabia and had been hopeful of further improvement from the new floor they brought to Miami. It appears it has, at very least over the single lap, narrowed the gap to McLaren.
Verstappen opened strongly on his first run in Q3, very quick through the opening two sectors and Piastri could not quite match him, just one hundredth of a second down. Norris however was on real form, especially in the middle sector but was also just pipped, three-thousandths of a second back in second.
For the final runs it was still all to play for as the track rubbered in and Verstappen went out and duly went quicker, Norris could not quite match him in the opening sector and nor could Piastri.
Verstappen had provisional pole as Norris went quicker in the middle sector but could not quite pull it off for the final third after he took too much kerb at turn 17. Piastri did not improve, while Antonelli delivered another superb lap to claim third for Mercedes. Verstappen’s time of 1min 26.204sec was just six-hundredths up on both Norris and Antonelli.
The pole may prove key for the race in what remains a very closely fought title fight, where Piastri leads Norris by just nine points with Verstappen 21 points back in arrears. Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon were sixth and seventh for Williams, Charles Leclerc eighth for Ferrari, Esteban Ocon ninth for Haas and Yuki Tsunoda tenth for Red Bull.
Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson were in 11th and 15th for Racing Bulls, Gabriel Bortoleto in 13th for Sauber and Jack Doohan in 14th for Alpine. Nico Hülkenberg was 16th for Sauber, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were in 17th and 19th for Aston Martin, Pierre Gasly 18th for Alpine and Oliver Bearman 20th for Haas.
