Miami - Qualifying

The sprint provided enough emotions to keep a fan satiated, but it wasn't the only event of the day. Only a few hours after the cars left the track, they reappeared, this time to set the grid for Sunday's Grand Prix. 

After the first runs of Q1, the regular suspects, namely Piastri, Verstappen, and Norris, sat on top of the leaderboards. They weren't the only drivers who got their chance to be on top. Sainz and Antonelli both temporarily held the quickest times. But while the day was going quite well for those who comfortably rested on top of the time sheets, it wasn't the case for Hamilton. With only 6 minutes of the session to go, he was 15th, after his timed attempt was destroyed by a lockup in the last corner. Thankfully for all Tifosi, he did manage to dig himself out of trouble. The same couldn't be said about Hulkenberg, Alonso, Gasly, Stroll, and Bearman. 

McLaren continued their domination throughout Q2. They were quickest in all runs, constantly occupying the two top spots. Halfway through the session, Antonelli found himself third, but his teammate seemed unable to match his pace. Russell was in danger of getting knocked out early, but made it out of the elimination zone in the end. Hamilton was in a situation parallel to the one he found himself in during Q1, but this time, there was nothing that he could do to save himself from elimination. Hadjar, Bortoleto, Doohan, and Lawson also got knocked out before Q3.

Verstappen quickly secured the provisional pole and held onto it as the McLarens completed their laps. Despite their best efforts, they weren't able to catch up to the reigning World Champion. Leclerc was put in a tough situation as his first lap was deleted for going off track on the last turn. He only had one shot to put in a good attempt. His efforts were only good enough for P8. Meanwhile, in the front, Verstappen improved on his second attempt and, once again, patiently waited for McLaren's response. Both Norris and Piastri began their laps with some issues, and although Norris came very close to Verstappen's time, neither was able to end the day as the quickest driver. 



Order of the grid:

1. Max Verstappen

2. Lando Norris

3. Kimi Antonelli

4. Oscar Piastri

5. George Russell

6. Carlos Sainz

7. Alex Albon

8. Charles Leclerc

9. Esteban Ocon

10. Yuki Tsunoda

11. Isack Hadjar

12. Lewis Hamilton

13. Gabriel Bortoleto

14. Jack Doohan

15. Liam Lawson

16. Nico Hulkenberg

17. Fernando Alonso

18. Pierre Gasly

19. Lance Stroll

20. Oliver Bearman

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