Max Verstappen will start on pole position for the second sprint race of the season in Miami on Saturday. Verstappen wasn’t happy with his lap in SQ3, but it was still enough to claim another pole.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was his nearest challenger, finishing just a tenth adrift despite hardly running in FP1 after a spin. Just like in Grand Prix qualifying in Saudi Arabia, he was able to split the Red Bulls.
Daniel Ricciardo was another of the standouts of the session as he took a superb fourth place for RB. It’s a timely boost for a driver who’s fighting for his future right now.
Carlos Sainz took fifth for Ferrari, while Oscar Piastri was the lead McLaren in sixth after a sharp SQ3 drop-off. Most of the teams struggled to extract performance from the soft tyres in the baking Miami heat, but McLaren seemed to suffer than most.
Lando Norris had set a scintillating pace in the first two segments. In fact, his 1:27.597 on the mediums in SQ2 would have been good enough for pole.
It looked as if Norris was putting an ‘astonishing’ McLaren upgrade package to use. But then he fell off a cliff when it mattered and will start down in ninth.
It could, however, have been even worse for the Woking outfit. Piastri’s day nearly came to an end in SQ1.
Martin Brundle issues verdict on scary SQ1 incident at Miami GP
The Australian narrowly escaped significant damage after an encounter with Sauber driver Valtteri Bottas at turn one. Bottas, on a slow lap, tried to navigate the corner as normal.
But he wasn’t aware that Piastri was pushing behind him, and the 23-year-old tried to sweep past. But for a last-second save from Bottas, it could have been quite a hefty accident.
Reacting to onboard footage of the incident live on Sky Sports F1, Martin Brundle said: “I don’t know if he was snoring, but he was definitely asleep.”
The Finn, for his part, quickly made clear over team radio that he wasn’t aware that Piastri was coming: “That’s too late man. I had no idea.”
However, that wasn’t enough to spare him a penalty after the session. Bottas will start 20th and last for the sprint, the lowest he could go after a three-place demotion from 18th.
Did Valtteri Bottas engineer change play a role in Oscar Piastri incident?
Heading into the weekend, there was ‘unrest’ at Sauber. The team replaced Bottas’ race engineer in what Will Buxton called a ‘highly unexpected’ move.
It’s difficult to tell whether this played a part in the miscommunication that saw him nearly collide with Piastri. But it’s certainly one theory the team might explore.
This is the first race weekend since Sauber confirmed that they’d signed Nico Hulkenberg for the 2025 season. That ramps up the pressure on Bottas and teammate Zhou Guanyu, at least one of whom will lose their seat.
The former Mercedes driver, who’s scored 67 podiums during his career, has an edge over Zhou in the eyes of the team. But he could still take matters into his own hands and move elsewhere.
Journalist Lawrence Barretto revealed heading into the weekend that Bottas is in talks over a return to Williams. Ironically, he could also replace Hulkenberg at Haas, though Oliver Bearman may be the favourite for that seat.
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