Tag: Miami GP

Perfect timing takes Norris to triumphant first F1 victory in Miami

Lando Norris finally ended his wait for a Formula 1 win, dominating the Miami Grand Prix after a timely safety car. The McLaren driver inherited the lead from Max Verstappen during the pit stop cycle as Norris chose to wait to make his stop. The …

Lando Norris finally ended his wait for a Formula 1 win, dominating the Miami Grand Prix after a timely safety car.

The McLaren driver inherited the lead from Max Verstappen during the pit stop cycle as Norris chose to wait to make his stop. The strategy paid off when Kevin Magnussen took out Logan Sargeant on lap 28 and handed McLaren what amounted to be a free stop a lap later.

When the race resumed on lap 33, a hesitant getaway from Norris was redeemed when Verstappen made a mistake at Turn 8, then faced further pressure from Charles Leclerc four corners later. That helped Norris stretch out a lead, holding a 1.239s advantage after a lap and taking him out of the Red Bull’s DRS range.

From there, Norris was untouchable, eventually crossing the line 7.612s ahead of Verstappen. It continued the run of Miami winners not coming from pole, while ending Verstappen’s unbeaten run in the United States stretching back to 2021.

“About time, huh?” said Norris, whose win comes on his 110th start – matching the same number of races for McLaren as Lewis Hamilton. “What a race. It’s been a long time coming but finally I’ve managed to do it for my whole team; I finally delivered for them.

“Long day, tough race, but finally on top so I’m over the moon.”

Norris retired from the sprint on Saturday, and dropped a position on the start of the Grand Prix, but ultimately a combination of the team’s perfectly-executed strategy and Norris’ outright pace allowed him to prevail on Sunday.

“The whole weekend’s been good. I’ve just had some little setbacks along the way but I knew on Friday we had the pace,” he said. “Just a couple mistakes here and there, but today we managed to put it together. We had the perfect strategy; it all paid off.”

For Verstappen, his first on-track defeat since last year’s Singapore Grand Prix came on a day where he struggled on the harder tires which he switched to on lap 23 – a lap after he collided with a bollard at Turn 15 which necessitated a brief Virtual Safety Car.

 

His first stint on the medium tires enabled him to maintain the lead from pole, albeit not in his customary dominant fashion — his gap over early podium contender Oscar Piastri sitting at around 2s. The switch to the harder compound only led to further struggles, with the Dutchman even describing his car as “a disaster” over the radio at one point.

“You win, you lose. I think we’re all used to that in racing, right?” said Verstappen. “Today was just a bit tricky. Already on the mediums I didn’t feel fantastic. We were pulling away, but not like it should be, and then once we made a pit stop and I heard what lap times the McLarens were doing, I was like, ‘Wow that’s pretty quick.’

“Once they switched onto the hard tire they just had more pace — especially Lando; he was flying. It was incredibly difficult for us in that stint, but if a bad day is P2, I’ll take it.”

Leclerc finished third, recovering from a poor start where he was swamped by both Piastri and Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz.

Piastri didn’t take long to apply the pressure on Leclerc, however, and looked as if he would be the higher finishing McLaren at one point after getting by Sainz on the first lap, and then Leclerc when the Monegasque driver pitted on lap 19.

Leclerc got back ahead when Piastri and Sainz pitted on lap 27, with the latter pair then engaging in a tense on-track battle, but contact between them at the end of lap 40 forced Piastri to pit for a new front wing, ending any hope of a points finish.

Sainz, meanwhile, was able to finish fourth ahead of Sergio Perez, who almost took out Verstappen on the opening lap when he ran too deep into Turn 1.

Hamilton finished sixth, with George Russel eighth. The Mercedes pair split by Yuuki Tsunoda – both Britons prevailing after an early race fight with Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg, who ultimately wound up 11th.

Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon completed the top 10, the Aston Martin driver getting round the outside of the Alpine at Turn 11 on lap 48. Nevertheless, tenth for Ocon ends Alpine’s wait for a first points finish of the year.

After the contact with Sainz, Piastri recovered to finish 13th, behind Pierre Gasly. Piastri netted the fastest lap of the race, although he was unable to snatch the bonus point for it, finishing outside the top 10.

Leclerc looks to pressure Verstappen during Miami GP

Charles Leclerc believes his performance in the sprint shows he is likely to be able to put Max Verstappen under pressure in Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix. Verstappen started from pole and won the sprint early on Saturday, but Leclerc offered a threat …

Charles Leclerc believes his performance in the sprint shows he is likely to be able to put Max Verstappen under pressure in Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix.

Verstappen started from pole and won the sprint early on Saturday, but Leclerc offered a threat off the line and then stayed close to the Red Bull for the entirety of the race with only the final lap seeing the gap extend beyond three seconds. After replicating a front-row start for the grand prix, Leclerc says he feels close enough to put up a challenge on Sunday.

“It felt so much on the limit,” Leclerc said. “Obviously it was very close until Q3, where when we started to push for the last one or two tenths, we started to lose the tires in sector two and three, overheating them quite a bit. Sector one was actually feeling really good, but then sector two and three we were losing too much.

“So today, that’s where we lost a little bit of time. However, the race is long tomorrow. This morning we showed a good pace. I hope tomorrow we can put Max under a bit more pressure.

“[The start] and keeping the DRS if we don’t get past by Turn 1 [are key]. DRS is super powerful here. And if we lose it after the first lap, then it’s always difficult to come back within DRS, so we must not lose it. But first of all, there will be the start. This morning we had a good one and tomorrow I’ll try to have an even better one.”

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With Carlos Sainz starting ahead of Sergio Perez in third place, Leclerc also feels there could be strategic opportunities for Ferrari in the full race.

“[In] the Sprint race we were a little bit closer to what we normally see,” he said. “However, I also said that Max wasn’t really happy with his car this morning in the sprint race, so we need to see how much of a step forward he does tomorrow, being happier with the car.

“But we did some fine tuning on our side. We’re also confident we did a step forward, so we’ll see. If we have a similar pace like we’ve seen this morning, then I think with strategy you can always put a bit more pressure. I hope that is the case. We’ve got the two cars in the front, so it’s a good opportunity.”

Although Verstappen was one of many drivers complaining about unpredictability on their qualifying laps, he says he feels Red Bull has improved his car following the sprint.

“It definitely felt a bit more connected, a bit more predictable, which hopefully will help me tomorrow in the race,” Verstappen said.

“Honestly, the only thing that we can control is within ourselves, so that’s what we’ll focus on. As long as I’m happy with my balance in the race, I think we’ll be alright. It just needs to be a bit better than what we had today in the race. I think if we can achieve something like that, that we’re in a bit of a happier window, then I’m sure we’ll be quick.”

Sprint result ‘middle fingers up’ for Ricciardo despite Q1 exit

Daniel Ricciardo says his top four finish in the sprint let him put a “couple of middle fingers up” to critics even though he then dropped out in Q1 at the Miami Grand Prix. The Australian had a strong sprint qualifying session on Friday to secure a …

Daniel Ricciardo says his top four finish in the sprint let him put a “couple of middle fingers up” to critics even though he then dropped out in Q1 at the Miami Grand Prix.

The Australian had a strong sprint qualifying session on Friday to secure a spot on the second row and actually ran third ahead of Sergio Perez for a spell before holding off Carlos Sainz for fourth. Although he then struggled in qualifying for the grand prix and will start last on Sunday due to a grid penalty from China, Ricciardo says the sprint result was a significant one.

“It’s so nice to fight at the front of course but then to be just holding for what we know are faster cars, it feels like a statement,” Ricciardo said. “It’s nice. It’s nice to still have that dog in me; it’s cool. A lot of people like to talk s**t so it’s nice to [put a] couple of middle fingers up, subtly.

“The first few races everything that kind of could have gone wrong did go wrong, so we had a little bit of a sniff yesterday and I feel like we capitalized on that. So this morning as well, the start was good, everything was going well, and I just felt like it was time to capitalize, and make some noise.

“Here we are four hours later starting last for tomorrow! Honestly the weekend has still been good. This afternoon we’ll look into it; it’ll probably dictate the rest of our weekend but I don’t think it’s a reflection of our weekend. It’s still been really positive, would love to be out there in Q3 with Yuki [Tsunoda] but we’ll try and understand it for tomorrow.”

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Ricciardo acknowledges it is tough to go from the high of the sprint to the low of qualifying, but cited the struggles of Lando Norris on Friday evening as a similar example of where a driver feels like there’s a surprising lack of grip that renders them helpless.

“I am [disappointed],” he said. “I feel like it was one of those ones where I don’t think we could have done anything in terms of I didn’t have the grip starting the lap. I generally felt like Lando how he felt yesterday in SQ3. I don’t know what he said afterwards, but I saw his lap and he went pretty much a second slower on that soft. You could see him sliding already from the exit of Turn 1 and it was a mess, and that’s honestly how I felt.

“It didn’t feel like that second set of tires give me typically what it should with a new soft, so I felt like we were a little bit kind of handicapped. Obviously we don’t have an answer why, I’m not sure if Lando had an answer yesterday, but I felt his pain.

“That’s frustrating, but it’s not like we changed the car and changed something different and were like, ‘We shouldn’t have done that.’ The first set was fine. There was, as always, some time to find and I felt like it was definitely quite easy to find on that second set even with a new set of tires and track [evolution] and a bit less fuel.

“The lap time’s there in the car, I simply just don’t really know what happened with that second set of tires. It’s kind of a [bad] thing to say because there are no facts behind it, but you feel it when it doesn’t give you what you want, so that’s where the frustration lies.”

Alonso claims Spanish drivers being treated differently by FIA

Fernando Alonso has claimed Spanish drivers are being treated differently by the FIA after a lack of a penalty for Lewis Hamilton at the Miami Grand Prix. Hamilton attacked Alonso down the inside of Turn 1 at the start of the sprint, arriving …

Fernando Alonso has claimed Spanish drivers are being treated differently by the FIA after a lack of a penalty for Lewis Hamilton at the Miami Grand Prix.

Hamilton attacked Alonso down the inside of Turn 1 at the start of the sprint, arriving quickly with Alonso having already made contact with teammate Lance Stroll just before the Mercedes pulled alongside. Stroll was then knocked into Lando Norris who was taken out of the race, and speaking after the Sprint had finished Alonso told Spanish broadcaster DAZN he expected the stewards to make a call based on nationality.

“I’m sure they won’t decide anything [against Hamilton] because he’s not Spanish,” Alonso said. “But I think he ruined a lot of people’s races, especially Norris — who has a very fast car.”

The stewards opted to take no further action, citing the three separate collisions as one of the factors in that decision.

“From the video evidence, it appeared that there were at least three collisions that occurred – the first between cars No. 14 (Alonso) and No. 18 (Stroll) and then between car No. 44 (Hamilton) and car No. 14 and finally between car No. 18 and car No. 4 (Norris).

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“While it appeared to us that the incidents began with cars No. 14 and No. 18, the sudden and fast arrival of car No. 44 contributed to the various collisions. However, we were not able to identify one or more drivers wholly or predominantly to blame for the various collisions or any one of them.

“Also keeping in mind that this was in Turn 1 of lap one where greater latitude is given to drivers for incidents, we took no further action.”

When that outcome was then put to Alonso after qualifying had finished, he maintained his stance that nationality plays a part in penalties.

“I have to open the gap because Hamilton was coming from the inside without control of the car, so if I do that for sure I get the penalty.

“I do feel that nationality matters, and I will speak with Mohammed [Ben Sulayem], with the FIA, whatever… I need to make sure there is not anything wrong with my nationality or anything that can influence any decision, not only for me also for the future generation of the Spanish drivers. They need to be protected.”

Verstappen cruises to sweltering Miami GP pole ahead of Leclerc

Max Verstappen has pipped Charles Leclerc to pole position for the second time this weekend for tomorrow’s Miami Grand Prix. The Dutchman looked likely to be threatened by Leclerc after the Monegasque topped Q2, and less than 0.2s split the duo …

Max Verstappen has pipped Charles Leclerc to pole position for the second time this weekend for tomorrow’s Miami Grand Prix.

The Dutchman looked likely to be threatened by Leclerc after the Monegasque topped Q2, and less than 0.2s split the duo after the first runs of the pole shootout.

What appeared to be heading towards a thrilling climax ended as a fizzer, with most drivers, including the pole contenders, failing to improve in the sweltering conditions.

Verstappen first lap stood to the end of the session, his best lap of 1m 27.241s enough to beat Leclerc by 0.141s.

“I don’t know what it is, every single year we come here I find it extremely difficult to be consistent with the car feeling, with the tire feeling over one lap,” he said. “Again, today, it was really about finding that balance.

“I think we did okay. It’s not the most enjoyable lap of my career just because of how slippery it is. You’re not very confident on the lap, but we’re on pole, and that’s the most important.”

Leclerc said Ferrari lacked the ultimate pace to take the challenge to Verstappen but was optimistic he could be a victory contender with better race pace.

“It felt so much on the limit,” he said of his lap. “When we started to push for the last 0.1-0.2s, we started to lose the tires in sectors two and three.

“Today, that’s where we lost a little bit of time. However, the race is long tomorrow. This morning [in the sprint] we showed good pace, so I hope tomorrow we can put max under a bit more pressure.”

Carlos Sainz qualified third and 0.214s off the pace, but the Spaniard was hopeful that starting from the clean side of the grid could pay dividends.

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“You always finish the lap and feel like you could’ve gone so much faster having a cleaner lap, but it’s almost impossible to put in a perfect clean lap around here,” he said.

“That’s why being P3, clean side of the road tomorrow, could be a good place to start.”

Sergio Perez was one of the few drivers to find any improvement with his second lap, finding almost 0.3s to rise to fourth on the grid.

Lando Norris sampled the medium tire at the start of Q3 but reverted to the soft after failing to find reasonable pace. He qualified fifth and only 0.081s ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri.

Mercedes ran out of soft tires in Q3 and had to complete the session with fresh mediums, leaving George Russell and Lewis Hamilton seventh and eighth at more than 0.8s adrift.

Nico Hulkenberg made his third Q3 entry for Haas in ninth ahead of an excellent Yuki Tsunoda in his fourth top-10 shootout appearance.

Lance Stroll was knocked out in 11th, but he was the lead Aston Martin driver in a surprising double Q2 elimination for the green team.

Stroll, set with an only aero package after his lap-one crash in the sprint, missed out on Q3 by 0.022s after failing to improve on his Q1 time, but teammate Fernando Alonso fared even worse, slumping to 15th having never been in contention.

Sandwiched between them were Alpine teammates Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon in 12th and 13th ahead of Alex Albon in 14th.

Valtteri Bottas will line up 16th ahead of hometown hero Logan Sargeant.

Daniel Ricciardo was a shock elimination in 18th after starting and finishing an impressive fourth in the sprint race earlier in the day.

Ricciardo had been on track to make it through to Q2 two-thirds of his way around the lap, but a poor final sector in which he didn’t improve on his personal best left him languishing in the drop zone.

A three-place penalty carried over from the Chinese Grand Prix will drop him to last on the grid.

Kevin Magnussen will be promoted to 18th but is facing a stewards investigation into unsportsmanlike behavior defending against Hamilton in the sprint race.

Zhou Guanyu, who will move up to 19th, will also see the stewards for crossing the white line on pit exit.

Magnussen says Hulkenberg didn’t play team game in Miami sprint

Kevin Magnussen says his multiple penalties in the sprint at the Miami Grand Prix were justified as he protected Nico Hulkenberg, but felt his teammate instigated the situation himself. Hulkenberg and Magnussen were running in seventh and eighth …

Kevin Magnussen says his multiple penalties in the sprint at the Miami Grand Prix were justified as he protected Nico Hulkenberg, but felt his teammate instigated the situation himself.

Hulkenberg and Magnussen were running in seventh and eighth early on in the Sprint, keeping Hamilton at bay outside of the points in the shorter race. However, once Hulkenberg pulled more than a second clear of Magnussen, he lost DRS and was struggling to keep Hamilton at bay, receiving multiple penalties for leaving the track and gaining an advantage or exceeding track limits in his battle.

“They were fair; all the penalties were fair,” Magnussen said after picking up a total of 35s of time penalties across four different incidents. “But I had to do my thing to protect Nico, make the space, same story as Jeddah.

“So I got some penalties, we got some points as a team. It kind of sucks for me because I think we probably could have just finished there, both cars, had we played the game together, kept me in the DRS, but Nico cut the chicane at one point and broke the DRS. Then I was vulnerable to Lewis, started fighting with him, lost ground to Nico and that was it.

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“I had to play the sporting game not to have him be overtaken as well. Not the way I want to go racing, but what I had to do.”

Hamilton was involved in contact with the Aston Martins at the start of the race and then was left frustrated by Magnussen’s defense, although he later received a retrospective drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane that demoted him from eighth at the checkered flag to 16th place.

“I feel OK,” Hamilton said. “It’s obviously tough battling out there. Of course Turn 1 wasn’t intentional to be touching with anyone, but everyone’s pushing as much as possible. I went for a gap but I think those guys went wide and then came back across so that’s kind of where we connected.

“And then after that was just fighting, trying to get past [the Haas cars]. It was really tough battling, but I would just enjoy that I was racing. I wasn’t going backwards at least. The penalty, definitely it sucks, but it’s one point.”

Verstappen wins penalty-laden Miami GP Sprint

Max Verstappen took victory from pole position ahead of front-row starter Charles Leclerc, in an incident- and penalty-filled Sprint race at the Miami Grand Prix. Verstappen was super aggressive off the line, squeezing Leclerc to the inside of the …

Max Verstappen took victory from pole position ahead of front-row starter Charles Leclerc, in an incident- and penalty-filled Sprint race at the Miami Grand Prix.

Verstappen was super aggressive off the line, squeezing Leclerc to the inside of the track to compromise his rival at the first corner and guarantee himself the lead. The Ferrari driver gamely clung to Verstappen’s gearbox through the first two sectors, but a safety car was called before the end of the first lap, neutralizing the race to collect Lando Norris’s stopped McLaren at the first turn.

Norris was the innocent party in a multicar collision at the first apex. Lewis Hamilton steamed into a gap on the inside of Fernando Alonso, who was already in the process of crashing into the side of teammate Lance Stroll. Hamilton’s added momentum sent all three cars into the side of Norris, who was spun off the road and to a race-ending stop.

Both Aston Martin drivers had to pit for repairs. Alonso was able to rejoin the race, but Stroll was forced to retire with damage. Hamilton continued behind the safety car.

The stewards opted against investigating the crash.

The race resumed on lap 4, but Verstappen was unable to clear away from Leclerc.

“Zero rear grip, like quali,” he complained to his race engineer.

But though his problems kept Leclerc within range, they weren’t severe enough to bring him within range of victory, and the Dutchman took the flag first with a 3.3s margin.

“We could increase the gap a little bit, but it wasn’t entirely perfect, so we still have a little bit of work to do,” he said. “Hopefully we can improve it a little bit later on for qualifying.”

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Leclerc was fortunate to be in the contest at all after Alpine’s Esteban Ocon crashed into him in the pit lane on the way to the grid. The Frenchman bizarrely plowed into the side of the Monegasque, his front wing breaking underneath the Ferrari’s right-rear tire despite his mechanics appearing to be telling him to stop.

“The guy was completely sleeping,” Leclerc said, though fortunately he escaped with only minor right-rear wheel rim damage that left him uninhibited on his way to a second place he said boded well for his grand prix prospects.

“I didn’t want to take too many risks because we have qualifying later on,” he said. “I was pushing very hard but in the first few laps they had a bit more pace, but then we had similar degradation. Hopefully we can put them under pressure on strategy [tomorrow].”

Sergio Perez finished third but without the pace to catch Leclerc after falling behind Daniel Ricciardo at the start. It took the Mexican just one lap after the safety car to take the position back, but his early pace was unimpressive. He chose instead to gift Ricciardo DRS until lap 9 to help keep a buffer to Carlos Sainz behind, after which he cleared off to secure third, though it left him too far behind the leaders to move forward.

“It was really hard to get through Daniel at the beginning, and once I go through … I was 3s from Charles, and given the short duration of the race, it was pretty tricky. Anyway, let’s look forward to the rest of the weekend.”

Ricciardo’s RB led Red Bull’s A-team car of Perez early before taking fourth. Sam Bloxham/Motorsport Images

Ricciardo was an excellent fourth for RB to score his first points of the year. The Australian seemed unlikely to hold position without Perez’s DRS, but he was inch perfect with his defensive lines and clever with his battery deployment to keep Sainz’s much faster Ferrari — and Oscar Piastri behind in sixth — at bay to score his first points of the season.

Nico Hulkenberg finished a strong seventh for Haas after teammate Kevin Magnussen did a sterling but controversial job of defending against Lewis Hamilton throughout the race.

The Dane picked up a ludicrous three penalties worth 25s in total — variously for cutting the chicane, crowding Hamilton off the track and driving off the road — to hold up the Mercedes driver so long that he never stood a chance of catching Hulkenberg.

“All the penalties were well deserved, no doubt about it, but I had to play the game,” Magnussen admitted to British TV, though he was disappointed Hulkenberg didn’t drop back to help him out with DRS.

His off-track duel with Hamilton even allowed Yuki Tsunoda to slot ahead of the Briton late in the race, but in the end the battle was in vain. Magnussen’s heavy penalties dropped him last, and Hamilton was slugged 20s for speeding in pit lane that dumped him to 16th. Tsunoda therefore inherited the final point of the race in eighth.

Pierre Gasly led home Logan Sargeant, Zhou Guanyu, the surprisingly slow Mercedes of George Russell and the pit-lane starting Alex Albon and Valtteri Bottas home.

Ocon finished 15th after serving his 10s penalty during the safety car period but finished ahead of only Hamilton, the damaged Alonso and Magnussen.

Norris rues ‘big spiral’ after mistake ruins Miami sprint pole

An early mistake on his SQ3 lap saw Lando Norris’ hopes of pole position for the sprint disappear in what the McLaren driver called “a big spiral” at the Miami Grand Prix. Norris is running a major upgrade on his car this weekend as McLaren has …

An early mistake on his SQ3 lap saw Lando Norris’ hopes of pole position for the sprint disappear in what the McLaren driver called “a big spiral” at the Miami Grand Prix.

Norris is running a major upgrade on his car this weekend as McLaren has introduced a number of new parts, and was quickest by a comfortable margin in SQ2, raising hopes of being fastest in the session. However, a poor first sector in SQ3 and further mistakes on the soft tire saw him end up ninth on the grid, while his SQ2 time on medium tires would have proven good enough for pole as multiple drivers struggled.

“I just pushed too hard, simple as that,” Norris said. “The car was feeling very good. Just silly to be honest. Couple of mistakes in Turn 1 and just a big spiral from there. A shame, because the team has done a good job, the upgrades were working, so I’m happy with everything, just not with one thing.

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“I hope [to move forward in the sprint]. I mean, the pace was very good, probably one of the quickest. So disappointed with today but I’ll do my best tomorrow.”

Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri only has around half of the new parts as McLaren opted against risking new mechanical components across both cars, and after securing sixth place he similarly was surprised by the difficulties faced in SQ3.

“I think it was just a really, really tricky session for everybody,” Piastri said. “I don’t know if the track changed a little bit or if we all just thought the soft was going to be a lot better, but my lap felt pretty terrible and it was P6. I think everyone must have just had a bad run. Lando did the quickest lap of the whole qualifying on a medium in SQ2, so a bit strange but I’ll take P6.”

Piastri says he has no worries about degradation in the sprint despite high temperatures in Miami, although he is expecting plenty of action on Saturday.

“It’s going to be tough for everybody I think, but the tires seem to be surviving OK; they’re just very hot. Not too concerned, but I think it could be an exciting sprint. We’ve got a few cars out of position. I feel like nobody’s really had much consistency, so it will be exciting tomorrow.”

Ricciardo shocked to qualify fourth for Miami sprint after wall hits

Daniel Ricciardo says he was surprised to be on the second row for the sprint at the Miami Grand Prix after hitting the wall twice on his way to fourth place in qualifying. The RB driver has yet to reach the final part of qualifying in either a full …

Daniel Ricciardo says he was surprised to be on the second row for the sprint at the Miami Grand Prix after hitting the wall twice on his way to fourth place in qualifying.

The RB driver has yet to reach the final part of qualifying in either a full session or sprint event so far this season, but outqualified teammate Yuki Tsunoda for the first time in China last time out. Backing that up with fourth place in sprint qualifying in Miami, Ricciardo says he wasn’t expecting to be so high on the grid after his lap, having touched the wall on multiple occasions during the session.

“I [obviously] feel really good about it,” Ricciardo said. “It was just a good session. The Q1, run one — the first lap — I actually made a mistake so we were putting ourselves under a bit of pressure, but I found a good lap, and then Q2 I think we kind of built up from there.

“All of us… I was speaking to Max [Verstappen] just now and he was saying he was quite surprised to be P1 with his lap, and I was saying with mine I was surprised to be P4. The soft [tire] — I expected a bit more from it, but it didn’t really give that much more than the medium, so I think we were expecting everyone to go a lot quicker, but they didn’t.

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“So happy with the second row; it’s awesome. I touched the wall…both laps as well, so I told the team I was definitely trying to get everything out of it. I don’t know if that made me quicker or not, but we were going for it and I had some good comfort in the car.”

Ricciardo — who has been using a new chassis from China onwards — is confident he can turn the starting position into a point-scoring result on Saturday, and is aiming higher than just holding on in the top eight.

“I’d love to be more than eighth, for sure. I’d love to get a few points from it so we’ll see what happens. I experienced it in Mexico, but just starting at the front, it’s a lot nicer than being 12th, 13th.

“Obviously it’s logical, but just from a Turn 1 [perspective] — first lap, being involved in a bit of chaos, obviously staying a bit cleaner at the front is always like a breath of fresh air. I’m sure the second row will help our cause in getting some points.”

Leclerc answering critics with front row start in Miami sprint

Charles Leclerc believes he’s put a stop to critical comments about his qualifying form after securing second place on the grid for the sprint at the Miami Grand Prix. Qualifying had been a strength of Leclerc’s after a run of consecutive front row …

Charles Leclerc believes he’s put a stop to critical comments about his qualifying form after securing second place on the grid for the sprint at the Miami Grand Prix.

Qualifying had been a strength of Leclerc’s after a run of consecutive front row starts, but then he was outqualified in consecutive races by teammate Carlos Sainz in Australia and Japan, as well as the sprint qualifying in China. Leclerc put that down to struggles with tire preparation and was the lead Ferrari in China’s main qualifying session, and after securing P2 in Miami despite missing FP1 he believes he’s ended any questions regarding his qualifying results.

“Yeah, I am [happy],” Leclerc said. “I am because qualifying has been a weak point for two races in a row… China was a little bit better but we didn’t have the car to actually show that.

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“On such a difficult weekend — because…I did one lap in FP1, so I had to go into qualifying and go [flat out straight away]. We are also only allowed to use one set of tires in SQ1 so it was very, very tricky, but straight away I felt the feeling, and the hard work I have done earlier in the season to try and put the tires in the right window have paid off.

“I’m happy because there are so many talks now, and you are as good as your last race in this sport. Obviously when you have two races in a row where you are bad in qualifying — where I haven’t done a great job — people start to talk. It’s good to stop that, but now we obviously need to work on the consistency and try to stay in that level and put those tires consistently in that right window as I have said in the past.”

Starting alongside Max Verstappen in the sprint, Leclerc says he will hope for the chance to win Saturday’s race as he currently does not know whether he has the car to challenge Red Bull this weekend or not.

“I have no idea about our race pace. I did one lap again, so I have no idea…but I really hope we can have a good sprint and have good race pace to have hopes for the win on Sunday.”