Max Verstappen will start from pole for the Sprint in Miami after storming to P1 in Friday’s Sprint Qualifying, while an earlier challenge from McLaren seemed to fall away.
With every driver opting for just one flying lap in SQ3, Verstappen went quickest of all with a 1m 27.641s lap. The Red Bull driver will be joined on the front row by Leclerc, who ended the session 0.108s away from Verstappen.
Sergio Perez slotted into third, while Daniel Ricciardo put in an impressive performance by going fourth fastest in the RB ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in fifth.
While McLaren had looked promising earlier in the session, the pace did not seem to hold into SQ3 on the soft tyre. Oscar Piastri claimed P6 while Lando Norris will start from P9, with the Aston Martin pair of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso sandwiched between them in P7 and P8. Nico Hulkenberg, meanwhile, rounds out the top 10 in the Haas.
FORMULA 1 CRYPTO.COM MIAMI GRAND PRIX 2024 – Sprint Qualifying results
| POS | DRIVER | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:28.194 | 1:28.001 | 1:27.641 | |
| 2 | 1:28.537 | 1:27.977 | 1:27.749 | |
| 3 | 1:28.681 | 1:27.865 | 1:27.876 | |
| 4 | 1:28.700 | 1:28.122 | 1:28.044 | |
| 5 | 1:28.435 | 1:28.262 | 1:28.103 | |
| 6 | 1:28.056 | 1:28.163 | 1:28.161 | |
| 7 | 1:28.807 | 1:28.323 | 1:28.375 | |
| 8 | 1:28.192 | 1:28.189 | 1:28.419 | |
| 9 | 1:27.939 | 1:27.597 | 1:28.472 | |
| 10 | 1:29.040 | 1:28.330 | 1:28.476 | |
| 11 | 1:28.387 | 1:28.343 | ||
| 12 | 1:28.736 | 1:28.371 | ||
| 13 | 1:28.873 | 1:28.379 | ||
| 14 | 1:28.377 | 1:28.614 | ||
| 15 | 1:28.687 | DNF | ||
| 16 | 1:29.185 | |||
| 17 | 1:29.267 | |||
| 18 | 1:29.360 | |||
| 19 | 1:29.551 | |||
| 20 | 1:29.858 |
There was double disappointment for Mercedes as both drivers exited in SQ2. George Russell will line up in P11 while Lewis Hamilton joins him on the sixth row in P12, with the seven-time world champion also noted for a pit lane infringement.
Esteban Ocon was the lead Alpine in 13th, ahead of Haas’s Kevin Magnussen in 14th. Meanwhile RB’s Yuki Tsunoda ended the session in 15th, having again been outqualified by team mate Ricciardo.
Pierre Gasly’s tough luck in qualifying continued as he failed to escape SQ1, with the Alpine driver set to start from P16 ahead of Kick Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas in P17 and P18 respectively.
It was also a challenging session for Williams. Local driver Logan Sargeant was disappointed to exit in 19th, while team mate Alex Albon ended the session in 20th, having had a lap time deleted that dropped him down from an original position of 16th.
Formula 1 Media | Photo: F1
