Max Verstappen had pole position for the Miami Grand Prix in his hands until he made a slight mistake on his final lap.
That opened the door for Charles Leclerc to take pole position – and his Ferrari team mate will join him on the front row.
Lewis Hamilton said Mercedes had made an improvement after claiming a place on the third row. But his team mate George Russell was eliminated in Q2.
Q1
With Esteban Ocon’s cracked chassis sitting in his Alpine garage, only 19 drivers were available for qualifying, meaning four of those would be eliminated in the opening round.
As every practice session had been interrupted by at least one red flag, drivers wasted no time in joining the track, the Haas pair leading half the field out as soon as the session went green. As it turned out the opening session, held in sweltering 33C heat with track temperatures as high as 53C stayed green throughout.
Verstappen set the initial pace with a 1’30.235, a healthy half-second quicker than his team mate. George Russell was less than three-hundredths off Sergio Perez, but his team mate had a difficult start to the session.
Lewis Hamilton had a scruffy start to his first lap, which he abandoned after running wide at turn 11. On his next attempt he got crossed up in turn eight, spoiling his run onto the quick section that followed, leaving him only 12th.
Ferrari were next to show their hand, Charles Leclerc moving to the top with a 1’29.474. His team mate initially backed him up in second, but Verstappen responded immediately with a lap which left him three tenths of a second behind his championship rival.
Valtteri Bottas was the last driver to set a time, taking ninth place, which knocked his former team mate Hamilton into the drop zone. The Mercedes driver, who lost another lap after cutting across the turn 14-15 chicane, was joined by the Williams pair and Pierre Gasly.
“So Lewis this will be one timed lap,” his race engineer Peter Bonnington told him as he headed out for a final run…