Max Verstappen secured third place at the Miami International Autodrome during qualifying for the F1 Grand Prix of Miami.
In the thrilling closing phase of Q3, the reigning World Champion had to abort his last fast run after a mistake, which left him unable to improve his time.
Miami F1 Grand Prix : Ferrari’s front row after thrilling qualifying + Result
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc took pole position, closely followed by Carlos Sainz in P2. Max’ teammate at Oracle Red Bull Racing, Sergio Perez, completed the second row next to Max in P4. Valtteri Bottas took P5, while Lewis Hamillton drove his Mercedes to sixth.
“In general I am quite happy with this qualifying”, says Max afterwards. “I only did a few laps yesterday, so we shouldn’t expect miracles today. We lost valuable time yesterday and we are paying the price for that today.”
During his last run, Max made a mistake that forced him to abort his lap. “I was still trying to find the limit of the car. I was still trying to get to know the track and trying to find a good balance. Maybe we didn’t have the right balance after so little data. I was actually quite surprised that we were so competitive in qualifying as this is not an easy track to get to know. So we can’t complain. Of course you want to be in pole position, but if you look at where we come from, I think we did a good job.”
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Looking back at the problems earlier this weekend, Max is somewhat critical but still optimistic: “We have to start to make the weekends a little less difficult for ourselves. Because it is difficult this way. But we have a good chance tomorrow. We have a good top speed, so I’m looking forward to it.” To get first place, Max will have to overtake the two Ferraris. The Dutchman says the following about this: “As soon as you get outside the normal racing line, you immediately lose a lot of grip. But we’ll see, a lot can happen tomorrow. I think it will be even warmer than today, so it also depends a bit on how the tires hold up. I hope we can keep up with the corners.”
text Yvonne Huijs/Verstappen.com