Verstappen took sprint victory and pole in Miami

2024-05-04 21:26:09

Max Verstappen won the sprint test at the Miami Grand Prix almost as planned. The world champion from the Netherlands won on Saturday around the Miami Dolphins stadium ahead of Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc and his Red Bull stablemate Sergio Perez. He then also grabbed pole position for the race on Sunday (10 p.m./live ORF 1, Sky) and thus kept his clean slate this season.

Verstappen, who will start from the front ahead of Ferrari duo Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, has won all six qualifications so far. The last time the Frenchman Alain Prost was on pole position six times at the beginning of a season was in 1993 in the then dominant Williams – since then no other driver has achieved this until this year.

“Let’s keep it up!” said the 26-year-old following his 38th career pole position. “I think we have improved the car a little bit, but every year when I come here I find it difficult to be consistent. Today was regarding finding that balance and I think we did that well. It wasn’t the best lap of my career, simply because it was so slippery.” Verstappen goes for the Miami hat-trick on Sunday, having won the races in the past two years.

“It felt so close to the limit that it was very tight until Q3. When we started pushing for the last tenth or two, we started to lose them,” said Leclerc. “But the race is long and I hope we can put a little more pressure on Max tomorrow.” Perez follows the Ferrari tandem on the starting grid, followed by the McLaren-Mercedes of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Fernando Alonso only came 15th.

Verstappen carried out the sprint, which started at midday local time, confidently, although not as confidently as he did two weeks ago in Shanghai. Immediately following the start, the yellow flags were waved by several cars in midfield following an accident, and a short time later the safety car was deployed. The two victims were Norris and Lance Stroll, who were unable to continue. The race resumed on the third lap. Verstappen and Leclerc were then up and away, and in the end the World Championship leader was 3.371 seconds ahead of second place.

Behind fourth place, Daniel Ricciardo from the Racing Bulls racing team, Sainz, Piastri as well as Haas drivers Nico Hülkenberg and Yuki Tsunoda ended up in the second Racing Bull. For Ricciardo it was the first World Cup points since Mexico at the end of October 2023, where he had six in seventh place Points taken. “It was a very strong race from him,” praised Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko in the ORF interview. In qualifying, however, the Australian fell by the wayside in the first section.

The start of the weekend was disappointing for Mercedes. George Russell was twelfth in the sprint, Lewis Hamilton was only 16th plus a 20-second time penalty. Record champion Hamilton had worn himself out in a duel with Kevin Magnussen in the Haas, with the Dane even receiving a total of 35 second penalty from the stewards for his offenses and consequently was listed last. In qualifying, Russell took seventh place immediately ahead of Hamilton.

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