Miami Grand Prix Results: What Happened In Qualifying?

Your Sports Illustrated guide to the Miami Grand Prix Qualifying session.

The qualifying session for the Miami Grand Prix has come to a close. Here is everything you need to catch up on if you missed the action.

The three free practice sessions were mixed with George Russell putting in the fastest time in FP1 and Max Verstappen taking the top spot on the timesheet during FP2 and FP3. Ferrari showed good performance as well apart from Charles Leclerc's crash during FP2.

Q1

George Russell reported strong winds during Q1 whilst the Mercedes are struggling to find the performance they had hoped for.

Lewis Hamilton suffered from damage to his front wing. The British driver had to avoid colliding with Kevin Magnussen so clipped the wall. The stewards have reported that they will be investigating the situation after the session.

Traffic has been a problem for many of the drivers with Charles Leclerc saying it is "stressful".

Nico Hulkenberg "almost got taken out by an Alpha[Tauri]" as he almost collided with Yuki Tsunoda in the pit lane with what looked like an unsafe release, however, the stewards declared that there was no further action needed. 

Both McLaren's are out in Q1 along with Logan Sargeant who is at his first home F1 race. Lance Stroll also had a shocking exit in Q1 after the recent performance of the Aston Martin's.

Out in Q1

• Lando Norris
• Yuki Tsunoda
• Lance Stroll
• Oscar Piastri
• Logan Sargeant

Q2

The McLaren team tried to fight for some track limits infringements from the other teams in order to get Norris back into Q2, however, they were unsuccessful and it was confirmed that he is out in Q1.

Max Verstappen was the first out in Q2 to get his time on the board as quickly as possible. 

The track temperature dropped by 7 degrees during Q2 in comparison to the start of the qualifying session. 

Sergio Perez clipped the wall at Turn 4, but was able to continue with the session. 

Another narrow miss in the pit lane with a suspected unsafe release of a Haas pulling out in front of Fernando Alonso. 

Lewis Hamilton was out-qualified by his Mercedes teammate George Russell and will be starting the race tomorrow from thirteenth position. The British driver complained to his team that they had left it too late.

Out in Q2

• Alex Albon
• Nico Hulkenberg
• Lewis Hamilton
• Zhou Guanyu
• Nyck de Vries

Q3

Red Bull team chief Christian Horner reported from the pit wall to Sky Sports F1 that the winds were picking up.

With seven minutes to go Sergio Perez put in a 1:27.713 to sit in provisional pole. After which, his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen lost control and ran wide after Turn 5. 

Charles Leclerc also ran into trouble as he locked up on a flying lap and grazed the wall, finishing with only putting in the seventh fastest time with four minutes to go. 

A late red flag with just 1 and a half minutes to go as Charles Leclerc span out and collided with the race wall, similar to how he finished FP2 yesterday, which sealed the deal for Sergio Perez to take pole position. 

Miami Grand Prix Qualifying Results

1. Sergio Perez
2. Fernando Alonso
3. Carlos Sainz
4. Kevin Magnussen
5. Pierre Gasly
6. George Russell
7. Charles Leclerc
8. Esteban Ocon
9. Max Verstappen
10. Valtteri Bottas
11. Alex Albon
12. Nico Hulkenberg
13. Lewis Hamilton
14. Zhou Guanyu
15. Nyck de Vries
16. Lando Norris
17. Yuki Tsunoda
18. Lance Stroll
19. Oscar Piastri
20. Logan Sargeant