The “cannibal” never makes mistakes: Max Verstappen scores his sixth pole since the start of the season with the Red Bull RB20, doing the same as Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Migel Mansell. The Dutchman achieved a 1’27″241 on the soft tyre, not improving last year’s record which is held by Sergio Perez in 1’26″841. The orange man collects the 38th pole start of his career, but is aware that Ferrari, although lacking updates, is not far away.
Charles Leclerc is on the front row with the SF-24, just 141 thousandths off the top: the Monegasque suffered a bit of overheating in the rear tires in the final sector. The Ferrari driver gave the feeling of being able to challenge Verstappen and the red car seems to have a good pace for the race too. The good impressions from Maranello also come from Carlos Sainz who settled in third place, managing to get behind Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull.
The Scuderia achieved the maximum objective, even if it came close to pole position. Meanwhile, he found Charles Leclerc who found his bite again, erasing the uncertain start to the season and the error in FP1 that prevented him from lapping in the only free practice session, but above all he put the pair of drivers between the two RB20s. The Spaniard succeeded in the feat by just 5 thousandths over the Mexican who ultimately paid 219 thousandths from his “captain”.
Ferrari also seems competitive in terms of pace, so let’s not expect an obvious race, although Max still remains the big favourite. Much more was expected from McLaren: Lando Norris was only fifth with the MCL38 equipped with the new aerodynamic package. The Englishman pays over three tenths without finding the actual potential of the new car. The feeling is that there was some confusion in the Andrea Stella team, so much so that Lando did the first run of Q3 with a set of medium tyres. A heresy, even if Norris yesterday set the best time in the Shootout Qualifying in Q2 with the yellow tyres. The experiment did not give the expected result and in the end the Briton closed with the reds, finishing just ahead of the second McLaren, the slightly less advanced one, of Oscar Piastri.
And Mercedes? It is lost, because the development of the W15 does not give the answers that Brackley expected. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton remained outside the Top 10 yesterday, while today they entered Q3: too little for the Star’s expectations. Both tried to fit yellow tires on the last run out of desperation and didn’t understand anything.
Nico Hulkenberg’s performance was positive in ninth with Haas: the German confirms that he deserved the call from Audi. Yuki Tsunoda is also smiling as he took back the Racing Bulls scepter, climbing to tenth position, while Daniel Ricciardo remained entangled in the nets at the back.
Lance Stroll with Aston Martin does not enter the Top 10 by 22 thousandths, but the Canadian, 11th, is content to be ahead of Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard arrived at this American event more nervous than usual and in the end he only finished 15th, demonstrating the difficulties of the “verdona” despite some updates that were supposed to make a leap in quality to the AMR24. The Asturian seems to suffer on the city track and did not shine.
Alpine realizes a gradual growth: the Enstone team brings the two A524s into Q2 with Pierre Gasly 12th, 57 thousandths ahead of teammate Esteban Ocon. Alex Albon is 15th with the best Williams, but the Anglo-Thai has to deal with a car that is decidedly less competitive than last year.
Valtteri Bottas is 16th with Sauber. The Finn does not exit Q1 by just 10 thousandths. The Nordic is narrowly ahead of Logan Sargeant with the Williams having disengaged from the back of the grid. After the excellent fourth place in the Sprint Race, Daniel Ricciardo’s 18th position disappoints. The Australian seems to have deflated after his excellent performance in the race, aware that he also has to give up three positions on the grid due to the hardship he brought with him from the Chinese GP.
Kevin Magnussen disappoints with Haas: the Dane received a scolding from the board of sports commissioners due to his unsportsmanlike behavior in the race and did not shine in qualifying. Ganyu Zhou also did poorly with the second Sauber: the Chinese couldn’t find the pace and finished last.
#Verstappen #pole #Miami #Ferraris
