Charles Leclerc seals pole while Ferrari lock front row for Miami Grand Prix

Charles Leclerc claimed pole for the inaugural Miami Grand Prix with another demonstration of superb precision, executed flawlessly for Ferrari driving on what is a testing track that has been punishing drivers across the weekend. His title rival Max Verstappen was pressured into a small error that cost him and he could manage only third, with Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz in second, while the audience at the Miami International Autodrome’s first competitive session boisterously revelled in the show they put on.

Lewis Hamilton, who had been hoping for some improvement from Mercedes this week, improved on his recent qualifying form with sixth place but his team remain eight-tenths back from the leaders.

A capacity crowd of 82,500 roared on their driving heroes as Miami ensured a noisy, vibrant welcome and the drivers duly took to the stage with some tense and testing runs that emphasised how the single lap discipline remains a charged, gripping spectacle. The crowd has come for entertainment and they have paid handsomely to do so, with ticket prices opening at $900 for a three-day pass.

Thus far Miami has delivered, they have basked in the fulsome facilities and trackside, the beaming grins, and party atmosphere was one of a crowd who had unashamedly come to enjoy themselves. Purists may sniff at the glitz of the racing business in Miami but certainly not the fans here for whom the event was successfully tailored.

The drivers gave them a suitably feisty appetiser for Sunday’s race. The session had always looked to come down to a showdown between the two leading title protagonists, Verstappen and Leclerc and so it proved as they made their final decisive laps but Sainz was also insistent he too would not be ignored.

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