04/05/2025
NEWS STORY
It was a day of extremes for Max Verstappen, who was classified last in the Sprint race because of a penalty for an error that was not really his fault, and then went on to set the fastest time in qualifying for the Grand Prix in his Red Bull.
This was the third pole of the season for the man who has just become a father to baby Lilly, his second in a row both this year and at this circuit, as well as the 43rd of his career. His best time of 1'26"204 is a new outright lap record for the Miami International Autodrome circuit.
McLaren's Lando Norris (1'26"269) will start alongside Verstappen, securing his place on the front row with a time just two thousandths of a second quicker than Andrea Kimi Antonelli, third for Mercedes in 1'26"271. Current leader of the Drivers' championship, Oscar Piastri is fourth in 1'26"375 in the other McLaren. The Pirelli Pole Position Award was presented to Verstappen by Brunello Cucinelli, a symbol of Italian fashion around the world, through the eponymous brand he established at just 25 years of age and best known for its cashmere products. Cucinelli is a proponent of the "humanistic capitalism" business model which combines profitability with human dignity to build a beautiful, ethical and sustainable economy.
McLaren scored a one-two finish in the Sprint, with Norris ahead of Piastri, while Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton completed the podium trio. This was the English McLaren driver's second win in a Sprint, the fourth for the Woking squad.
The Sprint was conditioned by heavy rain that fell before the start, while later the track surface pretty quickly dried out. It produced a race where the Intermediate tyres were used for two thirds distance, although Sainz (Williams) gambled on Extreme Wets at the start, but a red flag and the delayed restart saw him also switch to the green-banded intermediates, followed later by slicks. Of the eighteen drivers who saw the chequered flag - Leclerc was a non-starter and Alonso ended up in the barriers - four of them, Norris, Hamilton, Verstappen and Doohan, drove their final stint on Softs while the rest ran Mediums.
The C5 was the only tyre used in qualifying, with almost all drivers making their first run in Q1 on a used set. The set that had seen the most action belonged to Verstappen, the reigning world champion using it in FP1 and in the closing stages of the Sprint.
Mario Isola: "A very busy qualifying session, featuring a very close fight for the top places, with the top three drivers, from three different teams, separated by just 67 thousandths of a second, showing how closely matched are the cars this season.
The Sprint was also action-packed, mainly due to the weather. The heavy rain that fell before the start meant that the Intermediate was the only choice. Once a dry racing line began to appear, these tyres started to wear a lot, especially the front right and the lap times got significantly slower. The switch to slicks immediately proved to be the way to go, to the extent that eventually the entire field pitted for dry tyres, including those at the front who had built up a good margin over their pursuers.
This could be a factor to consider for tomorrow if it were to rain again. In that situation, drivers will have to be very careful in managing the Intermediates. If the race is run in the dry, the small amount of data gathered yesterday and today, with just one free practice session and the Sprint run almost entirely in the wet, only serves to consolidate the strategy forecasts from before the weekend. Despite the move to a trio of compounds one step softer than in 2024, the one stop is on paper, the quickest, with Medium and Hard as the obvious choices. Nine of the ten teams - Racing Bulls being the exception - have kept two sets of C3 per driver, not necessarily with the intention of using both in the race, but to have a backup in case of safety cars or red flags, something which is far from unlikely at this track."