The Saturday in F1 Miami GP was an interesting finish where Ferrari duo managed to out-qualify the Red Bull pair but slippery conditions made it tough for all.
The Saturday in F1 Miami GP saw Ferrari take the top spot with a 1-2 finish where Charles Leclerc took pole from Carlos Sainz as they manage to beat Red Bull pair of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, even though all of them had troubles to set a lap.
All of them noted the same about the surface where it was difficult for them to get a clean lap. Most of them were sliding around which they think will be tricky for the grand prix. While Ferrari duo are confident but they are wary of the straightline pace of Red Bull.
Leclerc: “Tricky, very slippery. It’s a sliding all around, a bit everywhere, and it is very, very difficult to put everything together because as soon as you get out of the line a little bit you are you lose a lot of grip and a lot of lap time. So the lap wasn’t perfect, but yeah, good enough to be on P1. Basically, from Turn One to Turn Eight, the lap was quite messy and I wasn’t really improving. I caught back a little bit in Turns, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 – but Turns 1, 2, 3 wasn’t great.
“But that is the way it is. After, I think, the second part of the lap from Turn 11 to Turn 16, it was quite good. And also, the last corner was as good even though it was very, very tricky with the change of tarmac today. The grip was much lower there, compared to anywhere else on track. But yeah, at the end, it was quite a good lap anyway. The car was amazing and hopefully we can keep that pace.”
Sainz: “Happy to be where I am after where I come from. But at the same time, obviously, tomorrow, you never know what can happen especially at this track. I think we found a track that is very unpredictable, very slippery, very easy to do mistakes. It was a pretty good lap but I’m still pushing a bit over, like on the limit to try and find the right way to drive this car and the balance, but up until that corner, everything was going well then I tried a bit of a different line in last corner. Because I was struggling through the whole qualifying I was losing a 10th or so there to Charles, but I didn’t make it any better by doing what I did in the last lap. But I had to try something different because I was losing always there and it didn’t go in the right direction.
“I think overtaking is possible with all these three long straights, but at the same time, all drivers complained about the lack of grip that there is offline, so if you’re going to make a pass, you need to make it stick fairly early into the braking. If not, I struggled to see ourselves doing any late moves or lunges from far behind, because there’s very little grip. Even at the start it could be very tricky on that inside line, and that outside line of Turn One. From here, I think we’ve asked the FIA to make sure that the track is as clean as possible for that start because we could see mistakes coming from drivers that really have no blame from it – because it’s basically like driving on a dry line and out of the line is feels like it’s wet – so we need a bit of help there from the race direction to help us.”
Verstappen: “A bit of a weird moment to lose the car but again, it’s just not really knowing the limits, I guess, and just trying a bit more. Then yeah, suddenly it snapped in Turn 5 and I tried to keep it on the road but that didn’t really work. So then I aborted of course, I tried to stay out of the way of the cars behind me. But yeah, but bit odd the way it snapped, but I mean, these things, these things can happen.
“Naturally there are two cars in front of you at the moment. So, it will make it in general a bit more difficult even, let’s say, if you have more pace, but you know, it’s a new track. So, we don’t really have a lot of information. It’s going to be super warm tomorrow. So you also don’t know what’s going to happen with the tyres entirely. Because I think, all of us, we don’t really have a proper long run. So, there’s still a lot of question marks. But of course, I would have preferred to start a little bit ahead.”
Behind the Top 2 F1 outfits, Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas slotted himself ahead of the Mercedes pair where George Russell didn’t even make it into the Top 10 amid difficulties to get in a clean lap due to porpoising and too much sliding around.
Teammate Lewis Hamilton made it inside but wasn’t too happy still. The Top 10 also featured Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in a surprise qualifying result with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly & Yuki Tsunoda, McLaren’s Lando Norris also making it in.
Bottas: “It is satisfying to qualify ahead of Mercedes I think today, especially after the day I had yesterday. By my mistake we lost a lot of running; it was extra work for the team, and it was a really nice recovery by a proper team effort. Once the car was there, once we found the set-up for the quali then it was up to me to get up to rhythm and deliver. I really wanted to deliver for the team because of my mistake yesterday and that makes me even more happy.
“It was far from an easy day yesterday, not many laps but then we had a good practice in FP3, got a clear direction with the set-up and then it was all about me finding the rhythm lap by lap. And by the end of Q3 I found the rhythm. Tomorrow, I think it’s going to be a big challenge. With the tyres in this temperature, with the cars, even for drivers, I’m sweating so much the body just cannot cool down in this humidity, so it’s going to be demanding. But I think we have a good race car as we’ve had every race so far this year, so we will be fighting up there. It’s Formula 1, everything is possible, and we are not far off. I think realistically fighting with the Red Bull, Ferrari with the pace they have is tricky, but anything can happen.”
Hamilton: “It’s been a bit confusing with yesterday’s pace. We don’t know why we were looking faster than we really were. And then today was a bit of a surprise to see us, in FP3, we were quite far back. So it was a bit nerve-wracking going into qualifying. We’ve not really taken a step forward or anything. But we’ve just got to keep on working. I mean, I’ve only just qualified, so I’m not looking at damage limitation. I’m looking at trying to do the best I can in the race. I’m generally really happy with the job that I did today, I did the best I could with the car that I have. It’s a very hard car to drive. One of the French media guys was saying you’re not performing so well. I did a damn good job today, and I’m happy with it.”
Gasly: “I’m extremely happy, that’s our best Quali of the year and it’s great to do it here in Miami. I didn’t feel great in the car this morning and struggled quite a bit, so we weren’t too sure where we would Qualify today, but when it matters we put it altogether and made it to P7. It’s really tight between the midfield, just a few tenths here and there, but we’re in a good starting position for tomorrow and that’s going to really count on this circuit. It’s a new track, which brings with it a lot of unknowns, we don’t have much data on degradation for our tyre strategy and even don’t know if there will be many opportunities to overtake, but I think it’ll be a fun race.”
It was a close finish in Q2 but where the likes of Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, Russell and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel were separated by just 0.086s from Q2’s 10th placed driver Gasly. A bit of moment for all the three drivers left them in a vulnerable position.
Also, McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo noted of delay in starting the car which hampered him. The Q1 saw Haas’ Kevin Magnussen’s exit as he revealed of radio issue which meant he didn’t know when to pit and ran the whole session on the one set.
Alonso: “It’s really a shame, but well, in that last attempt we couldn’t do the lap. A Ferrari was in the middle of the entire second sector, so we lost four tenths. We had been improving six tenths on my previous lap, and I came out of Turn 16 a tenth quicker so I lost four tenths or half a second in traffic, it’s almost unacceptable. It is difficult to overtake, but we’ll see. I think there will be a Safety Car, surely there will be opportunities. We started 11th on the clean side. We will see how many penalty positions they give to the Ferrari, I think we will start 11th and see what can be done from there.”
Vettel: “I had a little [mistake], and that probably cost a little bit more than the tenth I was missing. I just took a little too much risk in the left corner, had a little too much speed. I tried to brake harder, but that didn’t work. Then I ran out of road and then I was too late, didn’t hit the apex. That not only messes up the chicane, but also the corners afterwards. But the main time loss was in the tight chicane.”
Russell: “The car has felt completely different today, struggling a lot with porpoising and I just couldn’t attack any of the corners really so it’s a real shame because I think there was the potential in there, and we saw yesterday, we were really quick, and it’s just massively gone away from us today. And I don’t really know why. It’s not really making a lot of sense at the moment. When we get in the window, it’s fast but I’m just a bit disappointed with myself and for the team because the potential was there.”
Ricciardo: “The session started good in Q1. I think we made some good improvements to the car. So, that was certainly better, and I felt like we were just able to get into it quickly. At the time I thought we were relatively quite strong, so yeah, it felt good. In Q2 it started, unfortunately, to unravel a bit. The first run we lost a lot of time through the second sector, so there were a couple of things which we were looking to address for the second run. But then we had an issue in the garage starting the car which delayed us getting out at the right time. This compromised the out-lap, and then it was all just too compromised from there. It was unfortunate and cost us Q3, and that was that. We’ll hopefully get a bit better run tomorrow with a bit more fortune going our way and keep it going in a good way. Today, it was a bit unfortunate.”
Magnussen: “It’s going to be a crazy race tomorrow and hopefully we can fight back. The car is good, but we had no radio so that meant we couldn’t communicate between myself and the team – we only did one long run in Q1 instead of two short ones. Anyway, points are tomorrow, and we’ll see what we can do with strategy, we’ve got good pace and I’m still optimistic.”
Here’s how F1 Miami GP qualifying panned out