Charles Leclerc snatched pole position for the first ever Miami Grand Prix as Carlos Sainz made it an all-Ferrari front row in the Sunshine State.
Just when Max Verstappen looked like he would build on his Imola victory last time out by taking P1 on the grid for round five of the 2022 championship, he made an error on his final run and handed the initiative back to the title-race leader.
Leclerc and Verstappen have two victories apiece so far this year, the Monegasque holding a 27-point lead after the World Champion’s two retirements, and another thrilling battle could be in store between them at the Miami International Autodrome.
But Sainz, who has endured a poor run of form having exited the last two races early and crashed out of FP2 in Miami, is also right back in play and will be keen to avenge those disappointments by getting back on the podium at least.
Only 19 drivers took to the track for Q1 as Esteban Ocon was ruled out with a cracked chassis in his Alpine following a crash in FP3.
That meant only four more would drop out of the reckoning before Q2, and predicting who that would be became more difficult as the times came down rapidly along with the temperatures in the final third of the opening 18-minute session.
Fernando Alonso had a minor brush with the wall and Lewis Hamilton went into his final run needing to improve from P18, having had a lap time deleted for exceeding track limits.
The seven-time former World Champion was under pressure but got the job done easily and instead, along with Williams duo Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi, it was Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu – who was unlucky with traffic on his last attempt, encouraging his team to report it – and the surprising name of Kevin Magnussen, considering Haas’ promising performance in FP3, who bowed out at the opening hurdle.
Unsurprisingly, Ferrari and Red Bull locked out the top four places in Q1 with Leclerc fastest ahead of Verstappen.
So Mick makes it through to Q2 but sadly we…
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