F1 Miami GP: Charles Leclerc beats Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen to pole

Leclerc posted a lap 0.190 seconds faster than teammate Carlos Sainz, while Max Verstappen was left to rue a mistake o🐼n his final lap of Q3, which left him third on the grid, 0.195s behind his main title rival. 𝓀;
It marked Ferrari’s first front-row lo♎ckout in qua🔥lifying since the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix.
"Last week𓂃end wasn't great for me,” said Leclerc aft𝓀er securing his third pole of the season. “I made a mistake in the race, but today went well. We are starting on pole and we need to finish the job tomorrow.
"Red Bull are extremely quick in the♋ straight lines. We are quick in the corners. It will be a tight challenge tomorrow."

Sergio Perez w🌳as fourth-fastest for Red Bull, while Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas starred on his🅘 way to fifth, two-tenths clear of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes.
The seveꦍn-ti꧒me world champion put in a strong lap in his improved Mercedes as teammate George Russell suffered a Q2 exit, but Hamilton was still 0.829s off the pace.
Just behind Hamilton🐎 came Pierre Gasly, who outpaced McLaren’s Lando ෴Norris and AlphaTauri teammate Yuki Tsunoda. Lance Stroll completed the top 10 for Aston Martin.
What went wrong for Verstappen in qualy for F1 Miami GP?
Verstappen sat on provisional pole but made a critical error through the first sec𒁃tor as he attempted to respond to Leclerc’s improvement.
“I f**ked it,” the reigning world champion admitted after suffering a big snap which ruined his fi💜nal att꧅empt.

Nevertheless, Verstappen said he was surprised to make the second row after the reliability issues that disrupted his Friday running and restricted him to just five timed laps across the two practice seಌssions.
"Overall I am pretty pl💎eased with qualifying,” he said. “Literally I did four or five laps yesterday so today I was still trying to learn the track and trying to find a decent balance in the car. To be that competitive in qualifying, I was a bit surprised.&nbs♛p;
"We have a good chance tomorrow. We have a bit of speed. The car is handling quite we😼ll. I'm looking ꧟forward to that.”
How did the rest fare?
Fernando Alonso narrowly missed out on a spot in the top 10 shootout as he finished 11th for Alpine, just ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell, who was the biggest scalp of Q2 as he als🤪o failed to advance into Q3.
Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel was less than a tenth shy of progressing into the fina🅘l part of qualifying as he took 13th.
Daniel Ricciardo could not repli🌸cate the pace of his McLaren teammate on his way to 14th, while Mick Schumacher outpaced Haas teammate Kevin Magnussen for just the second 🐼time this season.

Alfa Romeo rookie Guanyu Zhou was only 17th after seeing his best lap was ruined by traffic as he too suffered an early exit in qualifying. 🏅;
Alex Albon outqualified Williams teammate Nicholas Latifi by just 0.059s as the pair ended up with the slowest times of qualifyi൲ng, ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, who did not take part after a crash in final practice.
Ocon’s chassis was cracked in his hefty impact with the Turn 14 barriers and could not b✃e repaired in time. The Frenchman is “physically fine” and will start Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix from the very back of the grid.

Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for mahbx.com around the w🎃orl꧅d. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.