Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen of Netherlands takes a turn during a Race Qualifying session on the second day of the Formula One Miami Grand Prix at the Miami International Autodrome on Saturday, May 3, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. MATIAS J. OCNER [email protected]
The new daddy remains Big Daddy when it comes to the big pole in Miami Gardens.
But, other than Max Verstappen winning another pole at the Miami International Autodrome, little else about Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix qualifying went as expected.
Red Bull’s Verstappen, who arrived tardy to F1’s Miami party after the birth of his daughter Lily. Saturday’s pole makes three in a row for the Miami Grand Prix for four-time defending world champion and four of the last five races in Miami Gardens. Mercedes Kimi Antonelli provided the outlier Friday with his stunning pole lap in Sprint qualifying.
Verstappen, who started on pole for both the Sprint and Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix last year, turned a lap of 1:26.204 in the third qualifying session that stood up to Norris’ 1:26.269 and Antonelli’s 1:26.271 to reverse his day’s fortunes. In the Sprint race, Verstappen finished 17th, buried by a 10-second penalty for unsafe release from his pit after he collided with an incoming Antonelli.
READ MORE: Wet and wild F1 Sprint race won by Lando Norris
“I think we improved the car a tiny amount as well, which helped me to basically rotate it a bit better and honestly, you know Q1, Q2, Q3 just improving every run, really, trying to find a bit more the limit,” Verstappen said. “I had a tiny moment on my final lap into Turn 1, so I lost a bit of time there. But around here it’s just very complicated with the tires over a lap, but at the end it worked out well so I’m very happy to be on pole.”
So, how did he handle his “moment?”
“I mean, you can back out of it, but it’s qualifying, so you try to correct it and just floor it out of the corner.”
As for the rest of the field, Lando Norris outqualified McLaren teammate and F1 driver points leader Oscar Piastri for only the second time this season.
“Hat’s off to Max, especially being a dad now,” Norris said. “I was hoping he was going to slow down a little bit, but he clearly didn’t. So no, I’m happy with today. I’m happy with the progress I’ve been making with the car, with myself.”
Piastri compared his the unfortunate circumstances that cost him the Sprint race with qualifying by saying, “This afternoon had nothing to do with luck. It was not the level of execution I needed to have in Q3. Never a great thing when your best lap is your first lap of Q2. There was quite a bit left on the table with a few mistakes on both laps of Q3.”
Mercedes’ George Russell said on Thursday, he thought his team was the third fastest team, definitely a step behind McLaren, but there was Mercedes rookie Antonelli sliding ahead of Piastri. They’ll be on the second row behind Verstappen and Norris.
“I felt like I didn’t have such a clean run as yesterday’s Sprint Quali,” Antonelli said. “I struggled more today to put the tire in the right window and to extract the best out of it during the whole lap. I think the last lap was a bit better on that side, still not amazing, but really happy with the result.”
Russell said, “Clearly, Kimi from that point this weekend has been really on it compared to the whole season. He’s been exceptionally fast. he’s doing an amazing job. Myself, I’ve taken a step backwards. What worked in the first five races did not work here in Miami.”
Ferrari’s Louis Hamilton didn’t even make the second round cut to the top 10. In fact, both Williams drivers, Alex Albon (seventh) and Carlos Sainz (sixth), outpaced both Ferrari drivers, Charles Leclerc (eighth) and Hamilton (12th).
“We’re just not fast, whatever we do with the car,” Leclerc said. “We can run it different ways. We just don’t have the downforce others have at the moment, especially at those speeds.”
