Without being brilliant, the Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull) still managed to take pole position in the sprint race of the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix after rather strange qualifying, Friday around the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens .
The three-time reigning world champion, leader in the championship, will set off in front of Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and his Mexican teammate Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) for the sprint, the start of which will be given in the heat of Saturday, at 11:30 a.m. local time ( 5:30 p.m. Paris time).
“To be honest, I really didn’t have a good feeling. In the last part of qualifying it was very difficult to get the tires working well. I didn’t improve my time much with the soft tires, but I took this pole position, explained Verstappen.
“The car was not pleasant to drive. However, I was comfortable during free practice and convinced that we could fight for pole. But qualifying didn’t go very well,” he added.
Leclerc has come a long way
During Q3, the Dutchman almost lost control of his car in his only fast lap, but that did not prevent him from setting the best time with 108 thousandths ahead of Leclerc.
The Monegasque has come a long way because he competed in these qualifications almost without any reference points since he had barely driven during the only free practice session earlier in the day. The Ferrari driver spun during his fourth lap and failed to restart, causing the session to be interrupted for around ten minutes.
On the French side, Alpine blew hot and cold: after encouraging free practice marked by the 9th and 10th times, the French Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly could not do better than 13th and 16th in qualifying and will have a hard time finishing. win the first points for the French team this season on Saturday.
The Grand Prix, for which qualifying will begin on Saturday from 5:40 p.m. (9:40 p.m. French), will take place on Sunday, with 57 laps of racing for this sixth meeting of the season.
