The Saturday eventually ended up being a hectic one in F1 Miami GP after rain affected the sprint event, while qualifying proved to be quite competitive.
It was chaos on Saturday especially in F1 Miami GP sprint due to the weather conditions. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc paid the price even before things got started, but teammate Lewis Hamilton made merry after a good strategy call to jump up to third, even though the car is still not good enough for that.
It showed in qualifying when Hamilton was knocked out in Q2 itself. He was slower on a fresh tyre than the used one as he was again at loss of words about the performance. Leclerc felt he did whatever he could in Q3, but was still only eighth in the end – signaling that the performance is just not there.
While they drop behind, Mercedes pulled up its strings again in qualifying after sprint trouble. Andrea Kimi Antonelli lost the lead from pole and eventually finished outside the points after he was hit by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the pitlane. The Italian made it in the points after penalties to others.
He backed up his performance with a third place finish in qualifying to continue his learning curve. But teammate Russell, who was fourth in sprint, ended up only fifth in qualifying. The Brit was surprised how close he was to the pole-sitter’s time, considering the difficulties he has had all weekend.
On Red Bull’s side, Verstappen couldn’t score after unsafe release penalty, but he showed class after securing surprise pole for Sunday’s race. A certain amount of tweaks helped his cause. Teammate Yuki Tsunoda did end up in points from pitlane, but wasn’t too pleased with only 10th in qualifying.
He made it in Q3 after missing out in sprint qualifying. The McLaren pair had to be satisfied with second and fourth in qualifying after a 1-2 finish in sprint. Lando Norris had some luck in the race to secure the win and finish second in qualifying, as Oscar Piastri rued his luck while lamented bad laps in Q3.
Verstappen: “I think apart from entry to Turn 1, yes. But yeah, it’s just been really tricky to get the tyres in the right window over a whole lap. So I think in hindsight… Of course, you never want to have a little oversteer moment on entry, but over the whole lap I did feel a bit more comfortable. So yeah, of course, very happy to be in pole. I think every qualifying, like Q1, Q2, Q3, just kept on chipping away at it and just kept on improving a little bit. So that’s exactly what you want. It’s been good to be able to spend a few days at home before coming here. 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 the positive. We can throw that out of the window as well for people mentioning it. And yeah, when I was here, honestly, yeah, just quite fluent. Anyway, I’m in contact a lot with my girlfriend throughout the day. So, you know, getting pictures and FaceTime a bit. It’s always there. But now one more member in the family.”
Norris: “It was a good race. I mean, everything went to plan, you know. Both had a good start and got into first and second, which was a nice thing. And then, yeah, it was those conditions that we’ve had several times this year already, where it’s Inters, drying out. But I had good pace throughout. I managed things well. I had mainly good pace at the end of the stint. And obviously, then it dried out enough to go onto the slicks. I had to box a lap later. I probably wanted to box the lap Oscar did, but I was unable to do that. So just getting forced to stay out helped me get the win. Obviously it was the first lap I had some clean air, so that made things feel quite a bit better. I think my pace was still very strong at that phase. You know, I feel like I could push on. And a little part of me wanted to keep going and kind of stay on the tyre. And it was only four laps to go, but the slick was a lot better. Like we saw, Lewis already gained a lot of time on the other guys – maybe their first laps were not amazing – but I think Oscar was still probably a second or two seconds quicker.
“So I’m sure he still would have come out ahead, and I would have come out on the colder tyres. So no, I probably wasn’t so looking ahead to where Oscar was at that point. It was more looking behind to the guys who might have been trying to undercut and get ahead on the slick tyre. I just put in a very good lap. We made a very late call to box – it was only literally the last corner. But yeah, worked out, so I was happy. As for qualifying, I’m very happy with the end result. Just a shame when you miss out on pole, so that’s the only frustrating bit. But I think I’ve been trying different things, I’ve been doing different things with the team to try and work a bit more in this area and things have been taking a step forward. So I’m happy. Maybe not quite there yet, but happy with the progress.”
Piastri: “I waited for it to dry up and then put dry tyres on. It was pretty much as simple as that. I was tempted to go the lap before, but we were going to come out in a bunch of traffic and with one dry line, that’s not a very nice position to be in. So we went a lap later because, I mean, we were miles ahead of the cars behind, so we didn’t really have to risk it. And yeah, it was clearly the right time for slicks. You know, just the timing of the Safety Car was not in our favour, but there’s not much we could have done. I had a really good start. Obviously got alongside. I think we probably both braked a little bit later than we should have. And yeah, I mean, there was a bit of contact, but I pulled it up still pretty comfortably. And yep, I think with that move, it would have won me the Sprint if there was no Safety Car, so I think it was a good first lap. The reaction when the Safety Car came out was “not again”. But yeah, there’s not much you can do in that circumstance. I knew I had a pretty comfortable gap behind, so I wasn’t taking too many risks. I could see that I was a little bit faster than Lando.
“So I thought I had that one pretty much under control once we pitted. And then, yeah, obviously the timing of the Safety Car was unfortunate. But frustrating in the moment. I think I’m leaving that Sprint knowing that I did everything I could, and everything that was in my control was well executed. And that’s all I can ask for. As for qualifying, on both laps of Q3 I struggled at Turn 1. I think I lost pretty much two tenths in Turn 1. On my first lap I gained back a bit through the rest of sector one and then fell away in the middle. On the last one, I eventually recovered some of it at the end, but it wasn’t enough. It was nothing to do with preparation. It was just execution of the driving, unfortunately. For me, I’m not concerned about the pace I had today. It was just that I didn’t use it when I really needed it. I think after the lap in Q2 I just never quite got back into the same rhythm. It was the difference at the end. There’s something to look out for sure but I know exactly where I went wrong which is frustrating but better than being asked questions about why not you were quick.”
Antonelli: “It was quite OK. I struggled a little bit during the qualifying. I felt like I didn’t have such a clean run as yesterday’s Sprint Quali. I struggled more today to put the tyre in the right window and to extract the best out of it during the whole lap. I think the last lap was a bit better on that side, still not amazing, but really happy with the result. I don’t really want to say because it always goes terribly wrong! So I’m just going try to have a good start and then try to set a good pace and stay with Max and Lando. It’s not going to be easy of course, but we’ll see , first of all, how’s the weather, because there are some thunderstorms probably, so that might not be really nice. But yeah, let’s just see how the weather is going to be and then we’ll try to do our best with what we have. Definitely also in FP1 we did quite a long run, so we were able to collect good data on the dry and hopefully we can have a good pace in the race.”
Hamilton: “I don’t think I was a front runner, was I? I was like sixth or something! No, so happy. Really, really happy with the result to get up here, because it wasn’t looking very good through… Qualifying, obviously, we were quite a chunk off these guys and then getting onto the Inters I was just sliding around. You know, I had the Williams behind me, I think, and there was another one behind him who was most likely I was going to be overtaken by. So I was like, I got to roll the dice. I was full lock through Turn 12 and full lock through Turn 16 and it still wasn’t turning. So I was like, let’s just go for it. If I’m honest, I should have done it maybe a lap or two before that. I think it would have been probably the same result because these guys were a bit too far ahead. But really happy to get back up there and get the points. You know, when we all went out for the formation lap, I don’t know how it was… obviously Charles had that moment. I had exactly the same moment – I was right behind him – and somehow it just stopped going towards the wall, right at the last moment. So that was nearly both of us out. So, as I said, to come from that to then get these points, I’m really grateful.
“As for qualifying, [it was a] difficult session. Mixed emotions. It was a good, decent result [in the sprint race], but it was not pure pace. It was a good call in the strategy, but in pure pace we didn’t have it. I was one of the first here this morning to make sure we took the right steps through the day and [it] didn’t make any difference. The car is just different every time you go out. We’re out-qualified by the Williams so they’re doing a great job, James and the team has done an amazing job. But pure pace… That’s where we are. Charles was fortunate to get through with a new tyre, so I just got in through it. If I had an extra new tyre we should have used it. The sprint race was better than qualifying but as I said we are where we are. We need some upgrades, we need some improvements, we need lots of things that need to be better. I’ve tried everything. We’re trying everything. The smallest bit of time and I was out. If we had gone out with a new tyre I probably would have been in Q3. Then it would just be eighth or ninth with Charles. It doesn’t make a huge difference, but the fact is we are trying, and we don’t have the pace. The car was not good in the wet. I don’t know if it will be tomorrow either. We’ll see. I’ll do a lot of praying tonight. There’s opportunity for sure. If it started dry and then went wet or something like that, it could be kind of neat. You’ve got to be lucky as well.”
Leclerc: “For the sprint, I have watched it quite a few times, honestly, I can drive around that 100 times and there’s not much you can do as a driver. In the first place the mistake was to be out on inter tyres with those track conditions. And this we need to understand what we’ve done wrong as a team, but obviously I think this was the main mistake that then cost us a lot. Obviously, that made the whole day a lot more difficult for the mechanics and for me as well, not doing as many laps as others, but I don’t feel like I’ve paid the price of it today. We were just not fast enough. In qualifying, we were just not fast enough. We have got to analyse, there was something strange on our side, I had to change massively the car, the tools, everything, in order to have kind of balance that I like, yeah, it was very different.
“So we got to look into it to understand what happened there. It is frustrating. To be honest, even more frustrating is that this weekend I felt like we are maximising the potential of the car. It’s just that the potential of the car is just not there. Today in qualifying I felt very satisfied with my lap, but it’s only bringing us whatever it is, P8 or something.. I think a track like this also highlights our weaknesses. There are a lot of low-speed corners, and both Williams [cars] are in front of us – and I consider my lap a good one. So, I think it’s pretty easy to understand where we are lacking. We are just not fast. Whatever we do with the car – we can run it in different ways, but we just don’t have the downforce that the others have at the moment.”
Russell: “I’ve been really struggling today, to be honest. This whole weekend has just not been clicking for me. Quali’s been a real strength of mine this season, but clearly whatever’s been working so well this year for me, it does not work here in Miami. And Kimi’s been doing a great job. For me, worst quali of the year, but it could have been worse. I was really surprised to be this close to pole position because it felt really bad out there. I didn’t feel confident in myself and I knew I couldn’t drive to my potential because I didn’t have the confidence. Days like this, it’s sort of damage limitation – so P5 was a good thing all things considered. It is in driving, it’s how you drive always puts the tyres in a slightly different window.
“And clearly Kimi, from lap one this weekend, he’s been really on it. He’s been exceptionally fast, doing an amazing job – and for myself, I’ve taken a step backwards, so you know what’s worked for me for these first five races did not work here in Miami. With sprint races, when you start on the back foot, it’s a bit difficult to turn it around and that was the case. I was always struggling a lot in that middle sector, sector two – the front end was just not coming to me. Pirelli increased the pressures last night which compounded the issue, and we know that out of the top four teams we’re probably the worst in keeping the temperature out of the tyres. It’s so close out there on a single lap, but I unfortunately expect that gap to extend tomorrow.”
With Hamilton dropping out, it allowed for both the Williams car make it into Top 10. Carlos Sainz made up after his sprint race slip to end up sixth in qualifying. Teammate Alexander Albon followed it up in seventh, but the Thai was more disappointed after the sprint race drop.
He ended up fourth but a penalty dropped him outside the points. He felt the penalty was harsh after what he did was on safety grounds, but rules are rules in the end. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was on the receiving end as well, not a penalty, but a hit from Visa Cash App RB’s Liam Lawson.
The Kiwi did not agree with the penalty as battery issues hampered his qualifying. Alonso felt he shouldn’t have been fighting Lawson in the first place. He urged his team to pit early but they went long. He felt he should have been fighting Lewis Hamilton for a podium place.
He was knocked out in Q1 along with teammate Lance Stroll, who scored again in the sprint race. Lawson’s teammate Isack Hadjar missed out on a Top 10 by a small margin. Haas’ Oliver Bearman felt his strategy didn’t work in qualifying, as he suffered another blow after losing points.
Teammate Esteban Ocon fared better in qualifying after making it into Q2. Alpine’s Jack Doohan did so as well in small solace by beating teammate Pierre Gasly, who was out in Q1 itself. The Australian felt he did the maximum, while the Frenchman rued traffic and overall lack of pace. Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto was on a high after everything clicked to make it in Q2, when teammate Nico Hulkenberg suffered to be knocked out in Q1.
Albon: “Disappointed a little bit, happy but disappointed. I think honestly, if it wasn’t P7, it would be P6, so glad that we’re together. I think it’s going to be important for us in the race tomorrow to be together. If we want to beat the Ferraris, which honestly I think is possible, we need to work together, so, yeah, happy I think not the best job on my side. Honestly, I am more disappointed about the sprint race. We got told five minutes before getting in the car, so you trying to reason to yourself and move on and get back into the qualifying rhythm but at the same time, it is five points that we lost in a midfield fight that is huge. I put my hand up, in the end, it was my fault but I think the penalty was very harsh considering I did what I did for safety. In the end I was got done for speeding in the VSC and the reason I did that was because I didn’t want to hit the brakes because I had George right behind me and we were on cold tyres as we just went on the slick tyres.
“And he was right behind me and I didn’t want him to crash in the back of me, visibility wasn’t fantastic even at that point in the race, so in my head I did the right thing…yeah, I was quicker in one corner that I shouldn’t have been by one second, that’s too much. It is in the rules and the rules are the rules, I think some common sense could be applied especially in mixed conditions but I am sure an example is to be set and they don’t want to get it out of control, so they decided to punish me. Back to qualifying, after FP1, I thought there’s a chance, and then actually when we came to qualifying, I think about Sprint qualifying compared to qualifying just now, the tyres were working much better for us. We actually did some really good differences on our outlaps to try to get the tyres in a better window and work for our cars, so let’s say I was hoping for Q3 and then by the pace we were showing I knew yeah P6/7.”
Alonso: “I was in a perfect race, keeping up with Albon and Hamilton was a little bit illogical. Even starting in the Top 10 was illogical….after sprint qualifying performance. We didn’t stop for dry tyres, I asked many-many times that I wanted dry tyres but we thought it was not the right moment and at the end we found ourselves fighting with Liam which is the second other thing because we should never have been in that position. We should be fighting with Hamilton, maybe for P3 and P4. We went in the stewards room but as I said, I don’t give any importance to that because I should have been wheel-to-wheel with Hamilton for P3, if I had stopped at the time the track was ready. It is difficult to read everything and not many cars had stopped in that moment, so it is very car dependent because sometimes the car can keep up the dry tyres alive easily in the damp and vice-versa.
“Some other cars, the inters can hold longer. In our case, it was clear that the inters were not good enough, obviously in the computer it is difficult to see that. As for qualifying, Q1 is our limit at the moment, there’s nothing to hide there, three sets of tyres in Jeddah, three sets in Bahrain, we run out of tyres in Q2 normally. Here we were on the limit again, one-tenth up and down. I think I still do a reasonable job, two-tenths or something in front of Lance which is basically my only compare at the moment and the other teams keep changing, sometimes it is Haas which is fighting in Q1, sometimes it is Alpine, sometimes it is Sauber, so it is difficult to compare to other teams.”
Ocon: “It was a frustrating Sprint race because unfortunately we were constantly looking behind. We just didn’t have the pace, struggling with understeer, braking and front tire temperatures, as we destroyed the tires after five or six laps, and from then, there wasn’t really much to fight for. I think we maximized our qualifying, we really got ourselves in there. We did overcome some of the issues, I think there are still some more, but that’s very good as it means there’s a lot of potential in the car. I’m really proud of everyone’s work, we didn’t give up, and although it was a tricky session, we got the car to where it should be. We need to keep that going and hopefully bring the car back home inside the top 10.”
Bortoleto: “I’m genuinely happy to be back in Q2 with a solid performance after some tough rounds in which I wasn’t able to show our full potential, but there’s still a tinge of frustration as I think we had a chance to be even higher – perhaps even in Q3. Today felt like a step forward – the team did a great job with the car, I felt comfortable and able to build confidence throughout the session, run after run. My second push in Q1 was probably the best lap I’ve done all weekend; the car was in the perfect window. I made a small mistake in my final Q2 run, but no one ever puts together a perfect lap here.
“Overall, it was a decent job. Most importantly, I feel we were able to put it all together in qualifying and show the pace we have, which is something we haven’t been able to do consistently so far this season. To do so today and show what the team, the car, and I are capable of means a lot. Now the focus is on tomorrow: starting P13, with a chance of rain and a few surprises likely, everything is possible. Others have scored points from these places on the grid, so we’ll give it everything tomorrow and aim to bring home a strong result.”
Gasly: “It is not the Qualifying result we had hoped for. We made a few changes to get the car in a better place for this session but in the end, we were not fast enough on all the runs so we need to analyse why we lacked in performance. There are some other details to look at, as the car did not feel the same as previously in the weekend. There was also a bit of traffic on my last run. I was the first to come out on my run and that meant I had traffic in the first sector. Nonetheless, my runs were clean, but we just did not manage to be fast enough. It is good to get a point from this morning’s Sprint Race after some cars got penalties, we moved up to P8. Now we can sit down as a team and work on preparing for tomorrow’s race.”
Lawson: “We had a good start in the Sprint race and I managed to make some overtakes on lap one. The pace was ok, but everyone was struggling with the track drying. Alonso was obviously coming out on cold tyres and I stayed behind him and waited for DRS. The contact with Alonso wasn’t intended and resulted in an unfortunate incident. The penalty is a really tough one to take – it is not my decision – because other than that it was a great start to the weekend. When it came to Qualifying, we clearly had a battery issue during the session which meant the car wasn’t getting full power. It’s a shame because we found a good step in the car today. We’re hopeful that we can fix the issue before tomorrow and the weather is definitely going to impact expectations for the race. We go again tomorrow.”
Here’s how F1 Miami GP qualifying panned out
Here’s how F1 Miami GP sprint race panned out
