MIAMI:
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won pole position for Friday’s Miami Grand Prix sprint race, joined on the front row by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who missed most of morning practice after spinning out.
Triple world champion Verstappen, who came from fourth on the grid to win the first sprint race of the year at the Chinese Grand Prix, will start from the front on Saturday after setting a top time of one minute, 28.194 seconds around a faint miami international freeway. .
“I felt really awful,” complained Verstappen. “It didn’t feel good out there to drive for whatever reason because in practice it felt really, really good.
“Somehow we ended up on the first one.”
Leclerc’s morning practice session was short, lasting just 10 minutes before he spun and stopped on track to bring out the red flag.
But the Monegasques made no mistakes in qualifying, splitting the Red Bulls apart with Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez third fastest.
“Qualifying was the weak point for two races in a row,” Leclerc said. “I did one lap in free practice so I had to go into qualifying and go straight away.
“When you have two races in a row where you’re bad in qualifying and I haven’t done a great job, people start talking.
“So it’s good to stop that, now we have to work on consistency and try to stay at that level.”
RB’s Daniel Ricciardo, despite clipping the wall, enjoyed his best qualifying effort of the year and will start fourth alongside the Mexican but ahead of the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, the only driver other than Verstappen to win a match this season.
“I know it’s in me, but was I expecting a second-row start? Probably not that good,” Ricciardo said. “It was wild.
“Both laps I kissed the wall, I was definitely pushing. “It’s really nice to start in front.”
There were more distractions this week for Red Bull with chief designer Adrian Newey announcing he would be leaving the team at the end of the year, but on track the championship leaders continued their dominance.
Verstappen arrives in Florida with four wins from five races and a 25-point lead over teammate Sergio Perez.
The 26-year-old Dutchman is also looking to complete a hat-trick in Miami having won the first race around Hard Rock Stadium in 2022 and then again from ninth last May.
Verstappen has started all five races this season from pole position, making him the only driver this century to achieve the feat.
French great Alain Prost, with Williams in 1993, was the last driver to take the first six poles of a season.
McLaren, which entered the Miami race with upgrades it hoped would close the gap on the marooned Red Bulls, continued to face twists and turns as Australian young gun Oscar Piastri qualified sixth fastest, ahead of the Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso.
McLaren’s Lando Norris, who started from pole in the sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix, could do no better than ninth in Miami with Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg 10th.
It was a hugely disappointing qualifying effort from Mercedes with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and George Russell exiting in Q2.
Russell will start 11th while Hamilton, who also hit the wall, will line up 12th.
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