Miami Grand Prix qualifying: Max Verstappen takes pole, Lewis Hamilton's woes continue

Max Verstappen narrowly secured pole position for the 2025 Miami Grand Prix ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris, the gap sitting at 0.065 seconds.

Kimi Antonelli continued to star this weekend at the Hard Rock Stadium, completing the top three with a final flying lap that was 0.067 seconds off Verstappen’s best. The Mercedes driver put together a clean lap around the track right when it mattered at qualifying’s end — enough to push him ahead of Oscar Piastri in the other McLaren in fourth.

It became evident fairly quickly that the margins were very thin between the frontrunners. The first flying laps of Q3 were rather close, with just 0.003 seconds separating Verstappen and Norris at the head of the pack. Norris messed up on his first Q3 flying lap with a lock-up at the hairpin and Piastri was not much further behind —at 0.017 seconds off Verstappen.

Come the second runs, Verstappen had to catch his car snapping briefly sideways at Turn 1, but he recovered to better his provisional pole position lap.

At first, it looked like the McLaren duo would not improve based on their first sector times, but Norris put together a quick second sector and a decent final sector. Another moment at the final hairpin appeared to cost him the critical final difference to Verstappen, while sprint race pole-winner Antonelli squeaked in front of Piastri with his final effort a short while after the leading duo had completed their final efforts. In the other Mercedes, George Russell took fifth,

Behind, the Williams duo of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon out-qualified Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc — and more importantly, qualified ahead of Haas’ Esteban Ocon (ninth). Their sixth and seventh qualifying positions put them in prime contention for points finishes in Miami, which is critical for the ‘best of the rest’ battle that Williams currently leads.

In the other Red Bull, Yuki Tsunoda finished down in 10th. His car is not fitted with the latest floor upgrade Verstappen felt had “improved the car a tiny amount”, after Red Bull’s tricky start to the current campaign.

Q2: Hadjar, Hamilton, Bortoleto, Doohan, and Lawson fail to advance

Hamilton’s rollercoaster season continued as he was knocked out of Q2, while Leclerc advanced with the eighth-fastest time in Q2 — the gap sitting at 0.058 seconds.

Ferrari’s situation was a stark contrast to the likes of McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes and Williams, who all saw both their drivers advance.

It doesn’t come as a complete surprise to see four young drivers knocked out in Q2. Gabriel Bortoleto out-qualified where the Sauber typically ranks and is set to line up P13, which would be his best start of the season. Meanwhile, both Racing Bulls drivers Isaac Hadjar and Liam Lawson failed to advance, putting them on the back foot when it comes to closing the gap in the ‘best of the rest’ battle.

Miami has a few overtaking opportunities, which could help the duo gain positions, but both Williams drivers Albon and Sainz and Haas’ Ocon were into the top 10.

Q1: Hülkenberg, Alonso, Gasly, Stroll, and Bearman out

For a period in the opening segment, it looked like Tsunoda and Hamilton would be in trouble early. The seven-time world champion was within the drop zone for a portion of the session before setting a time that landed him eighth, while Tsunoda was ninth after his final flying lap of Q1.

Leclerc didn’t put a full performance together, sitting 12th by the end of Q1, while Verstappen set the fastest time at that stage. But the fine margins continued up and down the grid, with the gap between the Dutchman and Nico Hülkenberg, who qualified P16 (and was knocked out), being just 0.603 seconds. Hülkenberg, in turn, was only 0.056 seconds off Leclerc.

A couple of stars did emerge, Sauber’s Bortoleto set the 11th-fastest time to progress and the Williams duo of Albon, who split the Mercedes drivers here, and Sainz set top-10 times.

After rumblings continue about the future of Jack Doohan’s seat at Alpine, the Australian driver put in a stellar lap when it mattered — out-qualifying teammate Gasly and advancing to Q2. The other Q1 fallers included the Aston Martin pair of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.

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What happened during the sprint race?

The first shunt of the day came before the sprint race had even began, with Leclerc hitting the wall on his way to the grid and consequently knocked out of starting the race.

Once the action finally got underway after a near 30-minute delay because of the poor conditions, Piastri got the better of Antonelli, who had started from pole, at the start. The stewards determined no further investigation was needed into their Turn 1 clash, which is what they also decided about the other first lap moment which involved Max Verstappen allegedly starting too far forward in his starting box.

With 10 laps to go, the sun began shining on Hard Rock Stadium and all 19 drivers were still on intermediates. It became a matter of how quickly the track would dry and if they’d need to pit during a short race that traditionally doesn’t feature stops.

Yuki Tsunoda made the first pit stop with eight laps left, switching to mediums, and Hamilton dove in a lap later for soft tires. With six laps to go, it became a waiting game to see how many more drivers would pit and for what tires.

Disaster struck for Red Bull and Mercedes, as Antonelli and Verstappen collided when they came in and the Dutchman exited his pit box — damaging his front wing. Antonelli had to stay out after missing his pit box due to the incident and the stewards ultimately handed Verstappen a 10-second penalty for his team’s unsafe release, which dropped him down the final order from fourth to last.

At this stage, Carlos Sainz also suffered damage from a separate incident on the track— clipping the wall hard at the track’s tight chicane. The Williams driver had to retire from the race.

A safety car came out on Lap 15 of 18 after Fernando Alonso ended up in the wall as a result of clashing with Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson, who later received a five-second penalty and one penalty point for causing the incident.

But it was perfect timing for Norris, who had yet to pit and was leading the race with teammate Piastri running in second, after the early race leader had made the switch to slick tires. The Briton managed to exit the pits ahead of Piastri and Hamilton, the Ferrari driver having strong pace from his early tire swap.

The 18-lap sprint race ended behind the safety car. Hamilton rounded out the top three finishers. Alex Albon, who had finished fourth initially, received a five-second penalty for going too quickly in safety car conditions, as did Ollie Bearman, initially in eighth, for an unsafe pit release. They dropped out of the points places as a result.

Sprint race results:

1. Lando Norris, McLaren
2. Oscar Piastri, McLaren
3. Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
4. George Russell, Mercedes
5. Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
6. Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull
7. Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
8. Pierre Gasly, Alpine
9. Nico Hülkenberg, Sauber
10. Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls
11. Alex Albon, Williams
12. Esteban Ocon, Haas
13. Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls
14. Oliver Bearman, Haas
15. Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber
16. Jack Doohan, Alpine
17. Max Verstappen, Red Bull

(Top photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images)