MIAMI – The Formula One racing weekend continues in Miami with Sprint qualifying where Max Verstappen took pole position for tomorrow afternoon’s Sprint race. Charles Leclerc lines up next to him in his Ferrari, as this session went much better than the ponderous practice sessions where he was spinning his blue SF-24. Behind them, Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo occupy the second row.
Ricciardo was undoubtedly the surprise of the session, claiming his best qualifying position of the season and putting his Racing Bulls car in a position we haven’t seen before. That may be enough to silence those who doubt Ricciardo is the right candidate for the job, as he has overtaken drivers who have outperformed him since the start of the season, including teammate Yuki Tsunoda. That said, he will need to perform well in tomorrow’s sprint if he is to take home points and not be overtaken by those behind him.
McLaren seemed to have great pace in the first two qualifying sessions, but both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri suffered a huge drop in performance when it came time to set their starting positions with Norris in ninth and Piastri in sixth. Most teams blamed the needy performance of the supple tires for the unpredictability of the final qualifying session, but it’s a disappointing result for McLaren given the raucous improvements made this weekend. We’ll see if there’s more pace in the race tomorrow.
Unfortunately for Mercedes, its two drivers were disappointments in Sprint qualifying. Lewis Hamilton only finished 12th after hitting the wall in the final attempt, with George Russell just behind him in 11th.
South Florida native Logan Sargeant placed his Williams 19th in the sprint, hours after team principal James Vowles spoke positively about him amid rumors that youngster Kimi Antonelli could replace him before the end of the year. While the starting position for what could be his home race is disappointing, he will be ahead of teammate Alex Albon for the first time this year as Albon had his lap time deleted, leaving him last on the grid.
This weekend, in particular, will see Miami host a Sprint race for the first time, due to a up-to-date order of events that sees qualifying for Sunday’s Grand Prix take place after the end of the Sprint, rather than before it. Traditionally, tomorrow’s sprint will last one third of the standard Grand Prix distance. It starts at noon EST and the weather forecast is similar to what we saw today, with high temperatures and no rain.
