Red Bull and Max Verstappen made it 7 for 7 in 2024, taking pole for Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix at the Miami International Autodrome ahead of the Ferrari duo of Charles LeClerc and Carlos Sainz. Verstappen, fresh off his Sprint victory just hours before, narrowly avoided losing the pole in Q3 after failing to improve on his final run, opening the door for the quick Ferrari pair to pounce. However, neither could challenge the 3-time World Champion and will settle in to 2nd and 3rd on the grid. Sergio Perez placed his Red Bull in 4th, just 2.2 tenths off his teammate as Lando Norris slotted behind him to start 5th after a dismal Sprint Shootout that saw the young Briton out of the race in the first corner.

ONBOARD: Max Verstappen’s 2024 Pirelli Pole Position Award lap at the Miami Grand Prix

Q1 Results:

Daniel Ricciardo was the talk of Q1, failing to make it out of the bottom five after a spectacular Sprint Shootout saw the RB driver take 4th place ahead of Carlos Sainz and Oscar Piastri. To add insult to injury, the Australian driver will start last on Sunday even though the timesheets saw him out in 18th as a 3-place grid penalty will be applied due to an incident in China two weeks prior.

Valtteri Bottas barely missed the cut for Q2, ending his session in 16th position while Logan Sargeant – who was initially out of the danger zone – was relegated to 17th after several drivers, including Fernando Alonso, managed to avoid the danger zone and made their way into Q2.

Drivers out in Q1:

• 16th: Valtteri Bottas (Kick Sauber)
• 17th: Logan Sargeant (Williams)
• 18th: Daniel Ricciardo (RB)
• 19th: Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
• 20th: Zhou Guanyu (Kick Sauber)

Q2 Results:

Q2 started quietly, but as soon as cars hit the track Charles LeClerc found himself on the sharp end of the timesheets as the Ferrari driver set the pace with a 1:27.533s lap early in the session as track temperatures rose. Quickly though, several big names showed to be in trouble as the clock began to run down. Hamilton, Stroll, and Alonso all seemed to be on the verge of missing Q3 until Hamilton dropped in a 3rd-best lap time to save the Mercedes driver. Stroll and Alonso, however, we’re not so fortunate as the Aston Martin struggle’s continued in Miami. Splitting the pair of Aston’s were the Alpine duo of Gasly and Ocon, while Alex Albon – who went off early in the session, prompting yellow flags to be thrown in turn 17 – would end his day 14th on the grid.

Drivers out in Q2:

• 11th: Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
• 12th: Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
• 13th: Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
• 14th: Alex Albon (Williams)
• 15th:Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)

Q3 Results:

Despite failing to improve his lap time, Verstappen’s first run was enough to secure pole ahead of the Ferrari’s and teammate Perez. McLaren recovered from a weak start to the weekend to place Norris and Piastri in 5th and 6th respectively, while Mercedes saw Russell once again lead teammate Lewis Hamilton to 7th on the grid. The Haas of Nico Hulkenberg – fresh off his points-paying finish in the Sprint Shootout, qualifying 9th ahead of Yuki Tsunoda in 10th.

With the grid set, it’s time for “lights out, and away we go” Sunday afternoon at 16:00 local time for the 2024 edition of the Miami Grand Prix. Check out the reports from Friday and Saturday as well as the full qualifying results below

FP1 Report – CLICK HERE

Sprint Qualifying Report – CLICK HERE

Spring Shootout Report – CLICK HERE

FORMULA 1 CRYPTO.COM MIAMI GRAND PRIX 2024 Schedule

Qualifying Results: