MIAMI — As a new day breaks here at Hard Rock Stadium for the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix, the biggest question is the same one that has captured the sport for the past three seasons. Can anyone catch Max Verstappen? On Friday he put what he described as a “terrible” car on pole position for the F1 Sprint Race, which he then won in dominant fashion. During yesterday afternoon’s qualifying session for the Miami Grand Prix Verstappen, like many other drivers, struggled to get the tires in the right window under the searing Miami sun.
But it was another pole position for the Red Bull driver, leaving the rest of the field wondering if, not when, they might be able to catch him. “It has just been extremely difficult to put a lap in where everything just works,” . “For some reason it’s just extremely difficult to make the [tires] work around the whole lap.
Yeah, sometimes you have little moments here and there and it’s just not very consistent, let’s say it like that. And that makes it very difficult to, let’s say, try and hit a perfect lap.” Early in the week it looked as if McLaren might have the best shot at catching Verstappen at the front of the field, as both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri looked strong in the first two portions of Sprint Qualifying.
But they will start the Miami Grand Prix on the third row, with Norris in P5 and Piastri in P6. Perhaps they can fight up the field from there, but tire management will be critical on what is expected to be.
