Max Verstappen wins pole for Miami GP after winning sprint race formula 1 news

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen continued his dominance in Formula One and took pole position for Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix after winning the sprint race early on Saturday. The reigning world champion and championship leader, who has won four of the five Grand Prix races this season, secured his seventh consecutive pole position with another impressive drive. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, whose fastest lap was 0.141 seconds behind Verstappen, will start second with his teammate Carlos Sainz in third and Verstappen’s Red Bull partner Sergio Perez in fourth.

Three-time world champion Verstappen has won both previous Miami Grand Prix races, but never from pole and said he still finds qualifying difficult.

“Every year we come here, I find it extremely difficult to be consistent with the feel of the car, the feel of the tires in a lap,” he said.

“It’s not the most enjoyable lap of my career, just because it’s slippery. You’re not very confident on the lap but we’re on pole and of course that’s the most important thing.”

Leclerc said the tires were difficult to handle because of overheating issues, but said he was encouraged by his performance in the sprint race.

“Here we lost a little time, although tomorrow the race is longer, we showed good pace this morning (in the sprint race) and I hope we can put Max under a little more pressure,” he said.

Sainz underlined how difficult it was for drivers to deliver the fastest lap on the course surrounding Hard Rock Stadium, home of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins.

“It’s really difficult here with the new soft. Every lap is a bit of a thrill,” he said.

“With the wind you don’t know what will happen. Taking all that into account, the laps weren’t too bad.

“You always finish a lap and think you could have gone much faster, but it’s almost impossible to have a clean lap here.”

Lando Norris will start in P5, just ahead of Mercedes pair George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.

Earlier, Verstappen won the sprint race by 3.3 seconds ahead of Leclerc.

The Dutchman led from pole and was never challenged after a chaotic opening lap.

Verstappen’s teammate Perez was third, giving the world champion himself a boost in the points.

The Red Bull driver held off a strong start from Leclerc to secure his place at the front, but there was plenty of action and incident in the middle of the pack.

Haas’s Kevin Magnussen and Mercedes’ Hamilton battled hard, but in the end the Dane earned three penalties, adding 25 seconds to his time, after repeatedly leaving the track and regaining the lead.

Hamilton also received a penalty, dropping him to 16th for speeding in the pit lane.

The safety car was brought out after the first lap, which saw a start line incident with Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll and Norris.

But away from those clashes, it was all business as usual for Verstappen, who added eight points to his season tally with the victory.

“I think my engine was not good at the beginning and so I had to accelerate it a bit, luckily everything went well,” Verstappen said.

‘Calm down matters’

“Then we had the safety car so things calmed down a bit after that. Gradually we could increase the gap a bit, but it wasn’t quite right so we still have a bit of work to do.”

RB’s Australian Daniel Ricciardo finished fourth in the sprint, ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, but his joy was short-lived – he will start in last place on Sunday after a disappointing qualifying session.

Magnussen admitted that his penalties were “deserved” and Hamilton said he enjoyed the duel.

“He’s very honest and I think that’s great,” the British driver said.

“We had a good race. The race was a little on the edge in some places, but that’s how I like it. I like to race hard and for me, I wasn’t really disappointed or anything.”

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)