Max Verstappen cannot be faulted for giving his all. Certainly he could do no more than the complete commitment he demonstrated in delivering a remarkable lap for pole position at the Miami Grand Prix. He was equally pleased in the process to be able to confirm that becoming a new father had had no impact on his pace, but the world champion remained unequivocal that he still expected more from his Red Bull team after they were found wanting at his expense in Saturday’s sprint race.
Verstappen claimed pole with an immense lap at the Hard Rock stadium, in what was an enormously competitive session. Anything short of perfection would have been costly and he was on rails, just beating the McLaren of Lando Norris into second and the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli into a superb third place by the tiniest of margins, six hundredths of a second. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was fourth and Mercedes’ George Russell fifth.
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 – something that has been sorely lacking on many occasions this season. The Dutch driver, who became a father for the first time with the birth of his daughter Lily in the last week, felt satisfied that he had answered suggestions bandied around that becoming a father would slow him down.
“It’s been good to be able to spend a few days at home before coming here,” he said. “When she’s just born you want to make sure everything is OK. Clearly it didn’t make me slower as well, being a dad, so that’s a positive. We can throw that out of the window as well for people mentioning it.”
This was also 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. With Norris and Piastri taking a one-two it dropped Verstappen to 21 points behind Piastri in the world championship but, with the pole, he has a great opportunity to claw some of it back on Sunday.
He was unsurprisingly pleased, especially with track position being so crucial in Miami. After managing only sixth in Bahrain with a car that lacked balance and a pit stop problem, he was blunt that he did not believe he could compete for the title as things stood. The team had held discussions after that race to consider how best to address the issues but have 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.
Yet 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 and it appears it has, at very least over the single lap, narrowed the gap to McLaren.
Verstappen acknowledged as much but maintained the team could ill-afford any errors.
“We need to make less mistakes and we need to find more performance,” he said. “I think it’s quite straightforward, it’s just not easy to extract or find. That’s how it is, but we keep pushing, keep trying to bring bits to the car to make it faster.
“What we are trying to achieve is a better balance in the car. Now this track is not always the easiest to say that you have improved or nailed something, because it’s just a really weird layout but it was not negative. From my feeling we’re not there yet. We need quite a bit more to be really in a fight.”
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 1 minute 26.204 seconds 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 in third.
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.
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.
