Max takes it all. Sprint race and pole position, the sixth in six races in a one-color Red Bull season with the fastest lap. It is his first pole in Miami, in a land, the States, where he has won the last six grand prix between Austin, Las Vegas and Miami where only he has won so far. Ferrari tried to jump in front of him, but Leclerc, with some mistakes in the central sector, remained at 0141 and Sainz at 0214. The two red/blues are there ready to chase Max at the start, with Perez beaten (4th at 0219) by two Ferrari drivers. They will be able to play something with the strategy and perhaps at the start, as Charles had tried in the Sprint. Behind the usual four are Norris and Piastri with a much improved McLaren which however fails to take advantage of the soft tyres.
In Q3 there were two Red Bulls, two Ferraris, two McLarens, two Mercedes, the Haas of Hulkenberg, new Audi driver and the Racing Bull of Tsunoda who beat Ricciardo, protagonist of the Sprint. The Sprint race in the afternoon had told us how on this track starting from the front and keeping your rivals out of reach of the DRS can be decisive. Max had done exactly that, fending off Leclerc’s assault at the start, when he showed him his muscles, and then fleeing to a safe distance after the Safety Car, which came onto the track after Alonso had pushed Stroll into Norris, eliminating poor Lando. And here too there is a lesson that comes to us from Sprint: watch out for the first corner because three of you can’t get through it and the risk of damage is enormous. Charles had understood this (“I didn’t risk it because I didn’t want to compromise qualifying and therefore the race”), a reasoning that the old Fernando evidently didn’t make, adding another mistake to this somewhat flawed start to the season.
The risk of boredom is high. Sprint confirmed this with a long train where Sainz was unable to pass Ricciardo and Hamilton worked like crazy to get the better of the very incorrect Magnussen who was then overwhelmed by penalties.
In short, if something big doesn’t happen at the start, then it will be hard to stay awake until midnight, with the race starting at 10pm Italian time.
