Picture Credit: Twitter/@F1
The qualifying at the new Miami Grand Prix was full of entertainment. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc qualified for P1 alongside his teammate Carlos Sainz who had an incredible comeback after two dismal performances in Imola and Australia. Leclerc clocked up 1'28.796 while Sainz had a lap of 1'28.986.
Behind the two Prancing Horses, stands Red Bull with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez who had times of 1'28.991 and 1'29.036 respectively. Rounding up the top six is the former Mercedes pair of Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton who are fifth and sixth while being separated by two-fifths of a second.
The bottom half of the top ten has Alpha Turi’s Pierre Gasly at seventh, McLaren’s Lando Norris at eighth, Alpha Turi’s Yuki Tsunoda at ninth and Lance Stroll of Aston Martin at tenth. The eleventh position is held by former F1 champion Fernando Alonso. Then the next three positions are held by Mercedes’ George Russell, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo.
The 15th and 16th places have both the Haas cars with Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen respectively. The bottom four are held by Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu, followed by the two Williams cars with Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi. The grid is rounded by Alpine’s Esteban Ocon.
“I’m really glad to have secured pole,” Leclerc
After the qualifying, Charles Leclerc talked about his Q3 lap and expressed that the track is difficult. He also spoke about how excited he is to drive with his teammate Carlos Sainz. He said, “It feels really good to come here and put everything together on such a difficult track. “
“Although I was not very happy with turns 1-2-3, it was a good lap and I’m really glad to have secured pole. I feel at ease with the car. It feels great to drive and really makes you think of how to extract its full potential.”
“Tomorrow will be a tight race and it is good to have Carlos by my side. The pace is there for both our cars and hopefully, we can keep our positions until the end to bring home a strong result for our team”, Sainz concluded.