If you ever wanted to know how important a banker lap is in Q3 for a Formula 1 Qualifying session, today’s Miami Grand Prix qualifying is a perfect example. Mx Verstappen, who has looked quickest all weekend long so far, bobbled his first run in Q3 and all of the final runs were neutralized when Charles Leclerc his the wall and brought out the red flag with not enough time to restart the session.
The failure to restart the session left Red Bull’s Sergio Perez on pole position followed by Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. Sergio said he’d been struggling all weekend long but things all came together in qualifying and he was in the right place to do it with the crowd ecstatic with his pole position.
Fernando said the car came alive in qualifying while Carlos said eh felt he had a lot more to give on his second run that was neutered but he red flag. That seemed to be the story of the day with the track conditions improving dramatically and there was a unique grip level that developed on the racing line but things got slippery when slightly off the preferred line.
The track also presented windy conditions that ramped up and caught a few drivers off guard during the session as well. In context, the track was a very unique component in car performance. We often talk about certain tracks flattering different cars and this was certainly one of them if you look at the poor performance from Mercedes versus the outstanding performance of Haas F1.
If you speak Spanish, you’d have a great dinner date with the podium with Mexico and Spain well represented.
Kevin Magnussen hauled his Haas up to P4 while Alpine seemed to like this track with Pierre Gasly in P5 and Esteban Ocon in P8. This leaves Max Verstappen down in P9 with a lot of work to do on Sunday. Good thing he has the fastest car and best DRS system.
Miami GP Qualifying Results:
| POS | DRIVER | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:27.713 | 1:27.328 | 1:26.841 | |
| 2 | 1:28.179 | 1:27.097 | 1:27.202 | |
| 3 | 1:27.686 | 1:27.148 | 1:27.349 | |
| 4 | 1:27.809 | 1:27.673 | 1:27.767 | |
| 5 | 1:28.061 | 1:27.612 | 1:27.786 | |
| 6 | 1:28.086 | 1:27.743 | 1:27.804 | |
| 7 | 1:27.713 | 1:26.964 | 1:27.861 | |
| 8 | 1:27.872 | 1:27.444 | 1:27.935 | |
| 9 | 1:27.363 | 1:26.814 | DNF | |
| 10 | 1:27.864 | 1:27.564 | DNS | |
| 11 | 1:28.234 | 1:27.795 | ||
| 12 | 1:27.945 | 1:27.903 | ||
| 13 | 1:27.846 | 1:27.975 | ||
| 14 | 1:28.180 | 1:28.091 | ||
| 15 | 1:28.325 | 1:28.395 | ||
| 16 | 1:28.394 | |||
| 17 | 1:28.429 | |||
| 18 | 1:28.476 | |||
| 19 | 1:28.484 | |||
| 20 | 1:28.577 |
Well after Baku’s boring race, this one is setting up to be quite interesting.
I don’t believe LeClerc’s accident was entirely his own fault. The windy conditions and lack of track grip were tripping up all the best drivers in FP3 and qualifying. Things will get very interesting if it rains tomorrow.
Perhaps the director can concentrate on the track action a bit more instead of random crowd shots.