© Oracle Red Bull RacingMiami Grand Prix: Saturday ReportMax Verstappen outpacing McLaren’s Lando Norris by 0.065s, securing his third front-of-grid start of the season.
MaxVerstappenbouncedbackfromapenaltyand17thplaceintheSprinttotakeastunningpolepositionfortheMiamiGrandPrix,outpacingMcLaren’sLandoNorrisby0.065s,securinghisthirdfront-of-gridstartoftheseason.YukiTsunoda,whograbbedhisfirstSprintpointswiththeTeamwithsixthintheSprint,willstarttheracearoundtheHardRockStadiumfrom10thplace,afterreachingQ3forthethirdraceinarow.
Yuki’s sixth place in the Sprint came about through an early switch to slick tyres midway through an incident-packed, wet/dry race in Miami which vaulted him to ninth place at the flag and an eventual P6 after Haas’ Ollie Bearman, VCARB’s Liam Lawson and Williams’ Alex Albon were all penalised after the flag.
Starting from fourth place on a damp grid, Max was quickly into a podium position, profiting from a first-corner tussle between polesitter Kimi Antonelli and Oscar Piastri that resulted in the Mercedes teenager dropping to fourth.
Boosted to third, the Dutchman set about chasing down the leading McLaren pair of Oscar and second-placed Lando, but with the conditions improving rapidly and with Yuki lapping seconds quicker than his rivals after his switch to slicks, the Team called Max in at the end of lap 13. The Dutchman bolted on a set of soft tyres, but with a steady stream of cars coming into pit lane he ran the risk of being swamped and unfortunately was released Max into the path of Kimi.
There was contact, with Max losing his left-side font wing endplate and Kimi forced to back out of his stop. The Champion rejoined but he was soon handed a 10-second time penalty for an unsafe release. And when a late-race Safety Car closed up the pack, the sanction cost Max as he dropped all the way back to 17th.
At the front, Lando benefited from the Safety Car with a timely stop that allowed him to beat Oscar to the flag, while Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, who had also made an early stop for softs jumped to third as the race ended under the SC.
Yuki’s sixth place in the Miami GP Sprint© Oracle Red Bull Racing
At the start of Q1, Max was straight back into the groove and the Champion posted an opening flyer of 1:27.573 to take P1. However, that time was beaten by Oscar who went 0.266s quicker to take P1, with Lando slotting into P3. Yuki, meanwhile, opened with a conservative 1:28.765 that left him 15th.
In the second runs, Kimi set the pace with a lap of 1:27.077. Behind him Yuki, who had dropped to the bottom of the timesheet, delivered a 1:27.486 on his second run to rise to ninth place.
Max, meanwhile, was powering through a purple first sector, and after PBs in the second and third sector the Champion once again jumped to the top of the order with a time of 1:26.870, 0.136 clear of Oscar with George third, 0.008s off the Australian.
Max headed back to the pits and as Lando edged ahead of his team-mate to steal P2, Yuki, who had again dropped back, delivered an improvement of almost two tenths of a second to secure a Q2 spot with the ninth fastest time of the session.
Ruled out of the second session were Sauber’s Nico Hülkenberg in P16 followed by Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, the second Aston of Lance Stroll and Haas’ Ollie exited in 20th place.
Max was first out on track at the start of the second session and the Dutchman stopped the clock at 1:26.643 to take an early P1, while Yuki opened his Q2 account with a time of 1:27.149 to slot into P2.
Max was first out on track at the start of the second session© Oracle Red Bull Racing
Max’s opening time was eclipsed by both McLarens, however, as Oscar took P1 with a time of 1:26.269 and Lando made his way to second place. Kimi also managed to find a little over three hundredths over Max to steal third place. As the opening runs closed out, Yuki's time left him in ninth place.
Oscar elected to stay in the pit lane for the final runs and when none of his close rivals delivered a significant improvement, including Max, who was marginally slower on his second run than this first, the Australian held on to top spot.
George, languishing in 11th after the first run, did make a leap forward, however, and he climbed to P3 ahead of Kimi, leaving Max to ease through in P5. Meanwhile, Yuki found 0.09s on his final run to initially gain a place, but when George climbed into Q3, the Japanese driver dropped back to ninth at the end of the session.
There was no place in Q3, however, for VCARB’s Isack Hadjar who went out in P11 ahead of Lewis, Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, Alpine’s Jack Doohan and the second VCARB of Liam.
In the first runs of Q3 it was Max who took over at the top of the table. The Dutchman took provisional pole with a time of 1:26.492, just 0.003s ahead of Lando and 0.017s clear of Oscar.
However, with Oscar having already gone two tenths quicker than Max's time in Q2 the final runs began with the expectation that the McLarens would find more time. And when Max suffered a snap on entry to Turn 1 that suspicion appeared to be confirmed.
The Champion was in no mood to let a “tiny moment” derail his quest for pole, however and over the remainder of the lap he dragged back the deficit and eventually crossed the line in 1:26.204.
Max’s 43rd career pole© Oracle Red Bull Racing
And when Lando clattered across the kerbs in Turn 17, Max’s 43rd career pole was as good as sealed. The Briton took P2 0.065s off the Dutchman with Kimi taking third ahead of Oscar and George. Yuki, meanwhile, put in strong lap of 1:26.943 to take P10 just behind Haas’ Esteban Ocon.
