Formula One world champion Max Verstappen says he is “pleased” despite an error in Q3 costing him pole position ahead of Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc was able to captialise after the Red Bull driver failed to record a final flying lap, teeing up a one-two with Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz.
Verstappen, who endured a difficult weekend, chose to look at the positives.
“Overall, I’m pretty pleased with qualifying. I literally did four or five laps in yesterday,” he said.
“The whole day today was trying to learn the track and trying to find a decent balance in the car and actually, to be that competitive in qualifying, it was a bit of a surprise because this is not an easy track to learn.
“Of course, you want to be on pole but where we came from, we’ve done a really good job. But we have to start making the weekends a little bit less difficult because like this, it’s always going to be tricky.
“We have a good chance tomorrow. The car is handling quite well, so looking forward to it.”
Leclerc, meanwhile, said he was keen to “finish the job”.
“The fans are crazy, it’s incredible to be here in the US and to see how much the sport has grown over the last few years,” he said.
“The last weekend hasn’t been great for me, 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 and it will be a tight challenge tomorrow but hopefully we will come back on top.”
