Max Verstappen, the reigning world champion, had quite an indifferent outing during Friday’s running at the Miami Street Circuit. After a decent free practice, he looked a bit unsettled in the RB20 during the Sprint qualifying but despite this, was able to hook a lap good enough to secure pole position.
After the event, Max Verstappen was shocked to hear that he had secured pole position. He shared his surprise via team radio and made it quite clear that he was not at all expecting to secure P1 via his ‘terrible’ final SQ3 push lap.
Almost all the drivers had a tough time in SQ3 to get a solid lap out of the soft tires. Verstappen’s conversation with his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase went like this:
Lambiase: Ok, I think that’s it. That’s P1 Max.
Verstappen: LOL, but what happened to the others? Mate this was terrible.
Lambiase: Slightly worse changes than you, maybe?
Verstappen: I mean, I’ll take it, but…yeah, ha!!
Max Verstappen via Red Bull team radioA shooketh Max on Sprint Quali day 😅pic.twitter.com/lSn1ODwjl0
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) May 4, 2024Looking at the reaction of the three-time world champion, he has left no stone unturned in indicating he was surprised that none of the other drivers were able to do a better final SQ3 lap than him. His teammate, Sergio Perez‘s final lap push lap was only good enough for third place.
Max Verstappen felt it was ‘difficult to get the tires working’ during Sprint quali
While Max Verstappen shared his surprise via the team radio on securing pole position, after a while, he also took to his own social media handles to talk about his indifferent outing. It was not surprising that he deemed the Sprint quali session quite difficult.
Verstappen’s nearest rival during Sprint, Charles Leclerc missed out of pole by the finest of margins.
Happy to be on sprint pole. Difficult to get the tires to work in the last session, but we’ll take the result.Max Verstappen via X
Happy to be on sprint pole 🙌 Difficult to get the tyres to work in the last session, but we’ll take the result 😎 pic.twitter.com/vyGv5jm2Mg
— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) May 3, 2024The Miami Street Circuit has proved to be quite tricky for the 20 F1 drivers. From its technical nature to the immense dust the street circuit accumulates during the day, it has proved quite slippery and difficult.
The all-important Miami Sprint race is just a few hours away. Keeping in view how much the drivers have struggled so far around the 5.412 km long circuit, it will be in the best interest of Max Verstappen to get off to a great start and just disappear into the distance, leaving the others to fight among themselves for the other podium positions. The upcoming Sprint event could spring up a few surprises.
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