9 hours ago
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Miami Grand Prix
Venue: Miami International Autodrome Date: 4 May Race start: 21:00 BST on Sunday
Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live from 20:00; live text updates on BBC Sport website and app
Red Bull's Max Verstappen beat McLaren's Lando Norris to pole position at the Miami Grand Prix.
Verstappen headed Norris, who won the sprint race earlier on Saturday, by 0.065 seconds.
Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, on pole for the sprint, grabbed third ahead of the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri.
Mercedes' George Russell was fifth ahead of the Williams of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon, as Ferrari struggled, with Charles Leclerc eighth and Lewis Hamilton down in 12th.
Verstappen's pole, in a car with an upgraded floor this weekend, was won with a blistering first sector of the lap. The Red Bull's speed in the fast sweepers there was too much for McLaren to claw back in the remainder of the lap.
"It's been a great qualifying," Verstappen said. "We improved the car a tiny amount, which helped me rotate it a bit better.
"Q1, Q2, Q3 improving every run. Trying to find the limit. I had a tiny moment into Turn One trying to find more time there but it's very tricky here with the tyres. It's qualifying, try to correct it and floor it out of the corner."
It was a second piece of good news for the four-time champion this week, after the birth of his first child, a daughter called Lily.
Norris said: "Congrats to Max, especially being a dad now. I was hoping it would slow him down a bit but it clearly didn't.
"Max did a Max lap again and I'm happy for him. The pace is there. I have been feeling good. It is what it is, I'm P2, Max on pole, ready to see what I can do into Turn One."
Antonelli's third place proved his pole in the sprint on Friday was not a flash in the pan, on a weekend where he is showing the spark of prodigious talent that convinced Mercedes to put the 18-year-old straight into their team in his debut season. He beat team-mate George Russell by 0.114secs.
It also made amends to some degree for a disappointing sprint result, where he lost the lead at the start and then was hit by Verstappen's car in the pits and finished seventh.
"This weekend is going well so far," he said. "It was a bit disappointing this morning, but happy to bounce back. I was a bit too greedy into Turn One but the rest of the lap was quite good. The gaps are super-tight."
A strong showing for Williams in sixth and seventh underlined the troubles of Ferrari, where Leclerc was 0.483secs off the pace and Hamilton failed to make it into the top 10 shootout.
He was just 0.058secs off Leclerc in the second session, but that was enough for four places, and it left him ruing a decision not to use an extra set of new tyres that he had available.
"It's always a surprise every session you go out what the car is doing," Hamilton said. "It's a bit of a mess at the moment balance-wise. Unfortunate to have not got through. Same old."
Leclerc said: "It is just not good enough. It is frustrating because it is those kind of days and it has been quite a few races already that I feel I am doing a really good job. But when you are finishing P4, P5, P6, P7, P8, it is just a shame. I have no satisfaction of doing a good job.
"I am just hoping we can turn the situation around as soon as possible but at the moment that is the situation we are in and there is not much I can do."
