Verstappen skated across the Miami Autodrome on his solely lap within the high 10 shootout, however his nearest rivals additionally struggled to enhance on their SQ2 occasions regardless of bolting on softer tyres for the ultimate shootout.
McLaren’s Lando Norris notably regarded to have missed an opportunity for a second consecutive dash pole, his table-topping SQ2 quicker than Verstappen’s pole-winning effort of 1m27.641s.
As a substitute, Verstappen discovered 4 tenths to hole Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by one tenth, with team-mate Sergio Perez one other tenth in arrears.
The Dutchman sounded shocked on the Purple Bull crew radio when his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase knowledgeable him his lap was sufficient to line up first on Saturday, and afterwards he defined his automotive felt troublesome to drive over one lap.
“To be sincere with you, it felt fairly horrible,” Verstappen mentioned. “I do not know, possibly the final session was simply extremely troublesome to get the tyres to work, as a result of already in SQ2 I did not really feel nice. SQ3 I believe it felt fairly comparable for me.
“I did not actually enhance so much on the gentle, however someway we’re first. I’ll fortunately take it, however it did not actually really feel gratifying on the market to drive for no matter purpose.”
Max Verstappen, Purple Bull Racing RB20
Picture by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Verstappen mentioned he had been assured he may combat for pole after Friday’s single 60-minute follow session, however that confidence disappeared as soon as he exited the storage for qualifying, whereas Norris topped each SQ1 and SQ2.
“In follow it felt actually, very nice. I used to be very snug and assured, in qualifying not a lot,” he added.
“I believed after follow, I used to be fairly assured that we may actually combat for pole then in qualifying it did not actually appear like that for me.
“However someway we nonetheless ended up in first. I do not know what occurred to the opposite vehicles within the final lap.”
Behind Leclerc and Perez, Verstappen’s former team-mate Daniel Ricciardo bounced again from a troublesome begin to the 2024 season by grabbing fourth for RB.