World champion Max Verstappen has taken pole position at the Miami Grand Prix and is aiming for the perfect weekend in Florida. A few hours after winning the sprint race, the Red Bull driver also won qualifying late on Saturday evening (05/04/24, CEST), relegating the Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to second and third place.
He will once again start the Grand Prix on Sunday (10 p.m.) as the clear favorite – although there were certainly doubts. Verstappen complained about problems with the set-up in the shootout for the sprint and then also in the short race, and McLaren also looked like a danger.
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Ferrari stronger than McLaren
In qualifying, the traditional team was not the expected competitor; Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri took fifth and sixth place. Ferrari and Leclerc were about one and a half tenths of a second behind the Dutchman, while his teammate Sergio Perez finished fourth behind the Scuderia.
Hülkenberg again with a top result in qualifying
Nico Hülkenberg, who had already scored points for the Haas team in seventh place in the sprint, also impressed in qualifying: from ninth place on the grid, he is once again aiming for a top 10 result. For Verstappen it is the sixth pole in the sixth race of the year and the 38th of his career.
The three-time world champion leads the World Cup standings with 118 points ahead of Perez (91) and Leclerc (83).