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Daniel Ricciardo will start 20th on the grid: “I’m going to try and do something special,” he says. Which will be important considering where he’s starting.
Ferrari’s Frederic Vasseur tells Martin Brundle that the first lap will be important on a track where it’s hard to overtake: “We know track position will be crucial”.
Here comes Martin Brundle for the grid walk. He chats to Miami’s very own Camila Cabello who reveals she’s here because she likes “fast cars” – good choice to come to a Grand Prix. He swerves Patrick Mahomes though, clearly not a Kansas City Chiefs fan. Then Brundle avoids Zinedine Zidane because he can’t speak English – what’s he got against all-time sporting greats? Brundle then chats to Susie Wolff for a bit before observing Lewis Hamilton’s car has a large exhaust pipe – this is the kind of inside stuff you get when you’re on the grid.
Bernie Owen emails in with a prediction: “Here’s the result. Verstappen wins, the rest in any order you like 39 seconds plus behind. It’s so exciting.”
Seeing as this track is very hard to overtake on, Max is in pole and recent F1 history, you’re probably right.
Let’s look at some pictures of famous people! Ed Sheeran played a few songs before yesterday’s qualifying. Glad to see he’s wearing a cap, given his skin type – Miami is not a safe place for gingers
Miami Heat’s Jimmy Butler earned $45m this season, making him one of the few people who can afford the hospitality package at this year’s GP. And he even got to look at some cars with it.
It’s hot in Miami (for a change) with temperatures at around 28C/82F with reports of tyres overheating on the track today. Ted Kravitz on ESPN reckons that means drivers will probably employ a one-stop strategy for today’s race, starting on medium tyres before going to the hard ones – that overheat the least – for the longer, second stretch.
Lando Norris is on ESPN answering very important questions, the first of which is: does he think he could take George Russell in a fight. He thinks he can: no doubt somewhere Jake Paul has seen who his next moneyspinning scheme will be against.
Just a quick reminder of our starting grid today. Plucky up and comer Max Verstappen is on pole, which may surprise you:
1 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1min 27.241secs, 2 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari 1:27.382, 3 Carlos Sainz Jr. (Spa) Ferrari 1:27.455, 4 Sergio Perez (Mex) Red Bull 1:27.460, 5 Lando Norris (Gbr) McLaren 1:27.594, 6 Oscar Piastri (Aus) McLaren 1:27.675, 7 George Russell (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:28.067, 8 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:28.107, 9 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Haas F1 1:28.146, 10 Yuki Tsunoda (Jpn) RB 1:28.192, 11 Lance Stroll (Can) Aston Martin 1:28.222, 12 Pierre Gasly (Fra) Alpine 1:28.324, 13 Esteban Ocon (Fra) Alpine 1:28.371, 14 Alexander Albon (Tha) Williams 1:28.413, 15 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Aston Martin 1:28.427, 16 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Kick Sauber 1:28.463, 17 Logan Sargeant (USA) Williams 1:28.487, 18 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) RB 1:28.617, 19 Kevin Magnussen (Den) Haas F1 1:28.619, 20 Guanyu Zhou (Chn) Kick Sauber 1:28.824.
Tom will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s how qualifying went on Saturday:
Max Verstappen remained determinedly very much on top of qualifying, continuing his unbeaten record for the season with another comfortable pole for the Miami Grand Prix. But in his wake Fernando Alonso is set to square up with Formula One’s governing body, the FIA. Alonso was angry and frustrated that they had failed to punish Lewis Hamilton after a controversial incident in Saturday morning’s sprint, claiming Hamilton had “ruined a lot of people’s races”.
For Sunday’s GP Verstappen once more holds all the cards with his sixth consecutive pole this season, beating the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz into second and third by just over a tenth of a second, having already taken victory in the sprint race.
He won the 100km dash with relative ease from pole to flag in what was something of a procession enlivened by an incident at the opening corner. Hamilton made an opportunistic move up the inside at turn one from the start, a dive that caused Alonso to clatter into his teammate, Lance Stroll, who then collected Lando Norris’s McLaren and took him out of the race.
You can read the full article below:
