Dutchman dominates sprint race and drives to pole position in the Miami Grand Prix as Pérez and Ricciardo score third and fourth in sprint.
Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen scored a second-straight sprint and pole double at the Miami Grand Prix, maintaining his unbeaten run of pole positions for the 2024 to date.
The Dutch driver led from lights-out to the chequered flag during the 100km sprint race on the Miami International Autodrome street circuit, leading home Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by 3.371s and his Oracle Red Bull Racing team-mate Sergio Pérez to secure a second consecutive sprint race win after his victory in the season’s first sprint in China.
In a tight qualifying session where high track temperatures meant maximising tyre performance was challenging, Verstappen again controlled the pace. His time of 1m 27.241s was just enough to beat Leclerc’s 1m 27.382s and ensure his sixth successive pole position of the season. Second Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz beat Pérez to third place on the grid.
The stand out drive of the sprint race in Miami was delivered by Visa Cash App RB’s Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian held off heavy pressure from Sainz and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri to finish in a fantastic fourth place, while team-mate Yuki Tsunoda also scored a top 10 finish in eighth place.
Tsunoda put his his VCARB 01 inside the top 10 with another strong performance in qualifying and will line-up for Sunday’s Grand Prix in 10th. Ricciardo wasn’t able to repeat his sprint race speed in the qualifying session however and will start the race from 18th on the grid.
QUOTES
Oracle Red Bull Racing
MAX VERSTAPPEN – Sprint Race – 1st/ Qualifying -1st
“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’s 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’re hot, it will feel a bit more normal to drive. The strategy will be a bit simpler tomorrow, so hopefully that will also bring my tyre degradation down. We will see what the race brings.”
SERGIO PÉREZ – Sprint Race -3rd/ Qualifying -4th
“It was a very tricky session, it was all too much with the grip, 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’m on the wrong side of the tenth today, but we go again tomorrow. We’ll 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.”
