Everyone seemed pleased to have arrived in Miami and not to have a sprint weekend. Although, what they lacked in extra racing time, they made up for in PR events.
Going into the first Qualifying session, no one was expecting any big surprises. The traffic on track was busy and the track improved, meaning drivers had to keep putting in the laps. Out went Norris, Tsunoda, Stroll, Piastri and home town hero Sargeant, last. Stroll in the Aston Martin was the big surprise as the Mercedes put in quick laps at the last second.
As we went into the second session, the track continued to get better and better. The Mercedes of Hamilton could not stick with the pace and was out along with Albon in 11th, Hulkenberg, Zhou and De Vries (who did well to get to the session and needs an improvement in pace as the non-rookie rookie). There were several unsafe releases in the pit lane as teams tried to get their drivers through to the third session but the stewards didn't feel these warranted any penalties.
Drivers were really struggling to put together the perfect lap. Throughout the afternoon, they radioed in to ask engineers to check their car as they touched the walls. With a minute and a half to go, Le Clerc made a dramatic spin across a vast run off area. As there wouldn't be enough time for an out lap and fast lap, Qualifying was over and it looked like a great grid: new championship contender Perez in pole, Alonso, Sainz, Magnussen (fantastic placing), Gasly (needing some luck), Russell, the stricken LeClerc, Ocon, Verstappen (who messed up his first flying lap) and Bottas. With predictions of rained (poopooed by local boy Sargeant), an interesting race lay ahead with only the shortened DRS zones to ruin it.
The biggest cheer of the whole session was undoubtedly for the brief shot of Ricciardo in the Red Bull garage. Let's see who we're cheering tomorrow.
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