MIAMI – The championship battle between Ferrari and Red Bull continues to be fierce. Charles LeclercTheir performance on Saturday at the Miami Grand Prix means that the mainstay position has shifted between the two teams at each round of this season, with Ferrari leading Red Bull 3-2 on aggregate after five races.
But Saturday’s session in Miami could go either way. Max Verstappenwho was third on the grid just 0.005 seconds behind Leclerc .’s Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz second, it looks like he was the favorite at the start of Q3 only for Leclerc to take the fastest time overall on his last attempt.
Verstappen may have improved in his final round, but ultimately dropped the controversy when his car swerved in Round 5. The defending champion, who missed much of the second practice session in Friday due to a hydraulic problem, said. His lack of preparation before qualifying eventually cost him with a hit in the post.
“I just did four or five laps yesterday and you can’t buy that on a new track like this and the street in general, because it’s very important to just do the laps and draw. beat,” Verstappen said.
“On the normal track it’s pretty easy to catch up. On the track it’s a lot harder and we basically failed in that aspect. Of course, in general, we’re experienced enough to catch it. , but for real combat, especially against such a strong team, you can’t afford it.
“We’re still close, but I think we could have done a better job today if we had had a cleaner Friday.”
Of the fault itself, Verstappen added: “It’s a bit of a weird moment to lose the car but then again it’s that I don’t really know the limit, I guess, and just try a little more, and then then it suddenly broke out in Turn 5.
“I tried to keep it on the road but it didn’t really work, so I gave up. I tried to get out of the way for the cars behind me, but it’s a bit odd, the way it clatters. But the this could happen.”
After two days of action, the Miami International Autodrome proved to be a significant challenge in qualifying. The circuit combines the fast first sector, the long straight line, and the much tighter second zone, which means the setup direction is not clear. On top of that, the track surface doesn’t offer the level of grip that racing teams expect and becomes especially slippery off the track.
“It was hard, very slippery,” Leclerc said. “[The car is] slide around a little bit everywhere and it’s very, very difficult to put everything together because as soon as you get out of line a little bit you lose a lot of grip and a lot of running time.
“So the lap isn’t perfect but good enough to be on P1, the car was fantastic today and hopefully we can keep that pace for tomorrow.”
The fact that Sainz was in front of Verstappen on the net was good news for Leclerc, although Sainz had no intention of playing a supporting role for his teammates.
When asked if his approach to the match against Leclerc takes into consideration his teammates are leading the championship, Sainz said: “No, the thing to consider is that we are teammates and we want to score one goal two for the team no matter who is front or back.
“It’s the same consideration I made this year and last year because I feel it’s still early in the season – we’re only in the fifth race and 19 left. [including Sunday].
“But you always treat your teammates with a little more respect, like last year but the will to win is still there and if there’s a chance to win I’ll go, that counts as my teammate of course .”
Sainz also hopes to use his top-of-the-line warm-up to regain momentum in his own championship challenge, which has hit two big hits after he retired in the gravel at the past two races. After Friday’s practice game, he said he needed a solid performance on Saturday to rebuild his confidence.
“It won’t be easy, I won’t lie,” Sainz said. “There’s still a bit of uncertainty in qualifying, which isn’t ideal for qualifying. When you don’t understand crashes, that’s the worst and yesterday it was difficult to understand exactly what went wrong. happen.
“It takes some confidence, it shows I’m still learning this bike, I’m still discovering things, it still surprises me. I’m agile because I was pretty fast today when I went out there. , that’s the most positive.” – Laurence Edmondson
What kind of race can we expect?
The quality of racing at the lap, which wraps around the outside of Hard Rock Stadium, has been a talking point since the final configuration was settled.
The two days of action on the track so far have been hectic, with lots of driver error and some car crashes into a wall. The highest cost made by Esteban Oconwho was unable to qualify after falling out of the final practice session on Saturday afternoon.
“It can be a bit Baku,” Sainz said on Saturday night, referring to the Baku street race of the Azerbaijan GP and its tendency to be either extremely dramatic or extremely unbelievable, with minimal averages . “Very, very cunning out there.”
Lewis Hamilton Also a fan, enjoy how the track is unique compared to many other F1 races.
“I think it’s great, the track is amazing,” Hamilton said. “It’s a distinctive feature. It’s not like every other trait.
“There were a few bumps that we were able to fix. We should probably get rid of the confusion. If not, that would be great.”
The designers of the circuit wanted to create a “fault generator”, and the drivers seem to agree that would be a punishment site.
“I think if you go astray, it becomes unbelievable”, AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly speak. “The new runway they put at the new angle… this feels like ice skating when you go through it.
“I don’t think it’s going to be easy. I think you’ll see the overtaking but if you go off track, it’s going to be slippery.” – Nate Saunders
