Leclerc on Miami GP pole, Verstappen error leaves him third

Championship leader Charles Leclerc claimed his third pole in the first five races of the 2022 Formula 1 season as he headed team-mate Carlos Sainz in an all-Ferrari front row at the inaugural Miami Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen starts third for Red Bull behind the Ferraris.

After Mercedes’ apparent resurgence on Friday, normal 2022 Red Bull vs Ferrari service was resumed on Saturday as Lewis Hamilton could only manage sixth and day one pacesetter George Russell was eliminated in Q2.

Verstappen had headed an ultra-close top three following the first Q3 runs, with the Red Bull and the two Ferraris covered by just 0.080s.

But a big twitch early in Verstappen’s final lap left him declaring “I’ve f***ed it” over team radio.

As he backed off, both Ferraris improved – Leclerc taking pole by 0.190s over Sainz with Verstappen a further 0.005s back alongside Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez.

Valtteri Bottas bounced back from his Friday crash with a brilliant fifth on the grid for Alfa Romeo, just ahead of erstwhile Mercedes team-mate Hamilton.

Both Mercedes appeared to be a huge handful to drive in qualifying. Hamilton had to make an additional run to get out of Q1, having been as low as 18th, but did at least reach Q3 in the end whereas team-mate Russell could only achieve 12th on the grid as he exited in Q2 for a second straight race.

AlphaTauri got both cars into Q3 – Pierre Gasly qualifying seventh and Yuki Tsunoda ninth.

They’re split by the McLaren of Lando Norris, who again had a big margin over team-mate Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian is down in 14th, having been 0.6s and 11 places behind Norris in Q2.

Aston Martin had one of its strongest days of the season: Lance Stroll reached Q3, taking 10th, and Sebastian Vettel might have joined him but for a chicane error in Q2 that left him 13th.

Alpine only had one car in qualifying because Esteban Ocon sustained a cracked chassis in his final practice crash, and its qualifying session brought more disappointment as Fernando Alonso missed out on Q3 by 0.032s in 11th place. He strongly argued that Sainz had blocked him, but the stewards quickly ruled there was nothing to investigate.

Though Mick Schumacher made Q2 for Haas on a day when team-mate Kevin Magnussen didn’t, it made little difference as they’ll still share row eight.

Zhou Guanyu’s 17th place was due in part to coming upon a huge traffic jam on his final Q1 lap. He starts ahead of the two Williams and Ocon.

Qualifying Results