The reigning world champion notched up his seventh consecutive F1 grand prix pole position, backing up his sprint race pole from Friday in the process, to continue his domination in Miami having converted that pole into a sprint race win earlier today.
But in a similar pattern to sprint qualifying, the majority of drivers produced inconsistent form, with many of the top 10 shootout failing to find substantial gains on their final runs in Q3.
Verstappen’s 1m27.241s from his first Q3 run was enough for pole after he was unable to improve, while none of his rivals could usurp him, as Charles Leclerc came closest but he missed out by 0.141s.
The majority of drivers found it tough to put together the ideal lap on the soft tyres, with the hot conditions and slippery track surface leaving drivers “guessing”, according to Verstappen.
“It has been extremely difficult to put together a lap where everything just works,” he explained. “For some reason, it is extremely difficult to make the tyres work around the whole lap.
“Sometimes you have moments here and there and it is not very consistent. That makes it very difficult to try to hit the perfect lap.
“Every lap you put on the board is a bit of guessing with what is going to happen so it doesn’t make it very nice to drive.
