Max Verstappen Sprints To Win Before Securing Seventh Straight Pole

It was a case of more of the same at Miami, where Max Verstappen continued his procession through the 2024 F1 season by winning the Sprint Race ahead of Charles Leclerc in the morning, then taking pole for Sunday’s race in the afternoon.

Pole in Miami was the Dutchman’s seventh in a row, and with the changes the Red Bull team made to his setup, he is well placed for the race win in Miami.

Max Verstappen

Sprint Finish Position: 1, Start Position: 1
Qualifying Position: 1, Time: 1:27.241
“The car felt better after the changes that we made, but we have found that there were quite a few combining factors that make it very tricky to drive around this track. It has been difficult over the weekend with the tyres, as they have quite low grip, overheat quickly and we have also struggled with the balance of the car. It has just been quite unpredictable, and everyone has found that it has been difficult to put a lap in. Despite this, ultimately the most important thing is that we put it on pole and that this is seven poles in a row, which is something to be proud of. We have the changes in place to make it more of a straightforward race tomorrow and it was good to get the win in the Sprint race earlier today too. Once the tyres stabilise in the race when they are hot, it will feel a bit more normal to drive. The strategy will be a bit simpler tomorrow, so hopefully that will bring my tyre degradation down too. We will see what the race brings.”

Sergio Perez

Sprint Finish Position: 3, Start Position: 3
Qualifying Position: 4, Time: 1:27.460
“It was a very tricky session, it was all too much with the grip, it was too hot and too on the limit. We didn’t maximise the potential, I think we could have had a shot at pole but I made a mistake on my final lap at turn eight, which probably lost me the front row. Unfortunately, I am on the wrong side of the tenth today, but we go again tomorrow. We will analyse our session because we were fast and we had more than we showed. Other than that, I think everyone had the same struggles today, some laps I was struggling to match myself from Q1. It will be a very demanding race and quite a challenge in the heat but the pace is there and anything can happen. Hopefully the changes we made to the car today from the Sprint will translate into race pace.”

Christian Horner

“Overall, a fantastic showing from the Team today with the Sprint race and qualifying here in Miami. We’re always trying to extract the maximum out of our car, and everyone was struggling a bit out there today to find the right balance and set-up on the last run. Max obviously found enough and was able to make it his seventh pole in a row, his sixth of the season, and it was another phenomenal performance from him. Checo put in a really, really strong performance and improved on his second run to put it on the second row, so we’re going into race day in a good position. The Sprint race today gives us a nice window into what the tyres are going to do tomorrow, but we’ll see how it plays out with set-up and conditions on race day.”