With massive fan support, resurgent Ferrari takes top spots in qualifying at F1 Miami GP
No team has been better represented in the crowds at the Miami International Autodrome crowds than Scuderia Ferrari and those supporters greeted Charles Leclerc with a roar Saturday after he won the pole at the inaugural Miami Grand Prix.
It was a 1-2 finish for Ferrari in Miami Gardens: Leclerc beat out teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. by 0.190 seconds to take pole position in the Sunday race.
“The fans are crazy. It’s incredible to be here in the US and to see how much the sport has grown over the past few years, and to see so many people in the grandstands — it definitely motivates us,” Leclerc told Sky Sports, “and there are definitely a lot of Ferrari fans.”
Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen finished third in qualifying, 0.005 seconds behind Sainz.
Leclerc and Verstappen have each won twice in the first four grands prix of the 2022 Formula One World Championship. Leclerc, with three podiums to Verstappen’s two, sits atop the season standings entering the fifth race of the year.
This has been a resurgent season for Ferrari after more than a decade of struggles for the most storied team in Formula One. Ferrari is the all-time leader with 16 Formula One World Constructors’ Championships — seven ahead of Williams Grand Prix Engineering — and their 15 Formula One Wolrd Drivers’ Championships are the most, too.
Ferrari, however, hasn’t won a World Constructors’ Championship since 2008 and hasn’t won a World Drivers’ Championship since 2007 when Kimi Raikkonen won his lone title.
It could finally change this year. Leclerc, a 24-year-old from Monaco, snapped a two-year winless streak when he opened the season with a win at the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix in March — he also had the fastest lap and won the pole for the first so-called “grand slam” of his career — and has stayed dominant since, finishing in the top six in all four races so far.
He and his team will now be a significant favorite Sunday at 3:30 p.m. With the top two spots in qualifying, Ferrari has the front row to itself and can dictate the early stages of the race because of it.
“The consideration is that we are teammates and that we want to score for the team,” Sainz said. “You always treat your teammate with more respect.”
Mercedes-Benz’s rocky weekend
Mercedes-Benz’s struggles through the first month and a half of the 2022 World Championship have been one of the biggest surprises in Formula One (F1) this season.
Its weekend in South Florida hasn’t done anything to lessen the confusion.
Mercedes was the most impressive team in the second practice session Friday, with England’s George Russell running the fastest time in the final practice of the day.
Less than 24 hours later, Mercedes couldn’t keep up the pace in the third and final practice Saturday, and then Russell settled for 12th in qualifying.
Although he faltered in qualifying and will start 12th in the Miami GP, Russell and Mercedes made progress with some good practice sessions.
Fellow Englishman Lewis Hamilton fared a bit better and will start sixth. Still, it’s a far cry from the usual expected results for the winningest driver in F1 history.
“We had a glimpse of a performance that is in the car if we get it in the right spot,” Mercedes CEO Toto Wolff said. “The learning is exponential, but exponentially tough at the moment.”
Last year, he finished as the runner-up in the World Championship and only missed out on a record-breaking eighth title because of a controversial finish in the final race. This year, he hasn’t finished better than third in a single race and is down at seventh in the standings.
The struggles haven’t dimmed Hamilton’s star, though: Both former First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama and “Star Wars” director George Lucas watched practice Saturday from Hamilton’s garage.
Drivers expect ‘slippery’ track
The most common adjective thrown around about the Miami Autodrome on Saturday was “slippery.”
Leclerc, Sainz and Verstappen all used the world after they wrapped up qualifying.
What might it mean? Teams and drivers say there’s not great grip when they get off the racing line, which could make it tough for drivers to pass because of how hard it is to drive side by side.
This story was originally published May 7, 2022 at 7:07 PM.
