@Max33Verstappen beats @CharlesLeclerc to #F1 #MiamiGP #Sprint pole by 0.108s.

Verstappen Miami Sprint Pole – Championship leader Max Verstappen pushed his RB20 racer to take pole position for tomorrow’s 100km Sprint Race at the Miami Grand Prix ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc as Sergio Perez completed the top three for Red Bull.

In SQ3, all ten drivers waited for the final moments to set their only hot laps in the session as Verstappen posted a purple sector one and two personal bests to score a 1:27.641 effort in a lap in which the Dutchman described was not his best lap, beating Leclerc to the pole by 0.108 seconds – who bounced back following a difficult FP1 session missing the majority, as Perez was a further 0.235 adrift of his Red Bull team-mate in third.

RB’s Daniel Ricciardo set an impressive lap to end up fourth on the grid as the second Ferrari SF-24 entry of Carlos Sainz who took fifth.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri will start the Sprint alongside the Ferrari on the third row in sixth and ahead of Aston Martin pairing Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso who were seventh and eighth respectively.

The other McLaren MCL38 entry of Lando Norris and MoneyGram Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg completed the top ten.

In the second qualifying stage, which was topped by Norris, the shock of the session saw both Mercedes F1 W15 entries of George Russell and Sir Lewis Hamilton missing out on an SQ3 appearance by a very narrow 0.013 and 0.041 seconds as both ended up in 11^th and 12^th respectively as the latter hit the wall after missing the apex on turn 16 on his final flyer.

Hamilton is also under investigation by the race stewards for a pit infringement.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon qualified 13^th and ahead of Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen and RB’s Yuki Tsunoda who were the slowest of the SQ2 runners in 14^th and 15^th.

In the opening segment, which was topped by Norris, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly wounded up the quickest SQ1 and starts 16^th for tomorrow’s 100km Sprint and in-front of Sauber pairing Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas who were 17^th and 18^th respectively as the latter currently faces a post-Sprint Qualifying investigation for impeding Piastri at turn one.

Williams Racing duo Logan Sargeant and Alexander Albon brought up the rear with the latter having his lap-time invalidated for exceeding track limits by cutting the apex of the chicane.

You can see the full Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix 2024 Sprint Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.skysports.com/f1/grandprix/miami/results

2024 Miami Sprint Qualifying Pole Position – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, 1:27.641:

“To be honest with you, it felt pretty terrible. Maybe that last session, it was just really difficult to get the tyres to work. I didn’t improve much on the soft, but I’ll take it. It didn’t feel enjoyable to drive – practice was really comfortable, I was quite confident we could fight for pole. But qualifying it didn’t look like that for me – I don’t know what happened to the other cars on that last lap.”

@Max33Verstappen tops #MiamiGP FP1 session as @CharlesLeclerc spins out. #F1

Adrian Newey to leave @RedBullRacing after 19 year spell. #F1 #RedBullNews

#F1 Crypto.com #MiamiGP 2024 Preview. #Formula1 #MiamiGrandPrix