‘LOL, what happened to the others?’ – Max Verstappen reacts to ‘terrible’ Miami Sprint pole

Max Verstappen.

F1 2024 Championship leader Max Verstappen was in complete shock that his SQ3 effort was good enough for Miami Grand Prix Sprint pole.

Verstappen took momentum with him into Sprint qualifying after topping the sole one-hour practice session, though it looked like he had a fight on his hands as Lando Norris topped the opening two sections of qualifying in his heavily-upgraded McLaren.

Max Verstappen left wondering where the others went?

However, the switch to soft tyres for SQ3 saw Verstappen return to P1 when it really counted, his 1:27.641 good enough to take pole for the Sprint by one-tenth over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Verstappen’s reaction over team radio to that achievement showed just how surprised he was.

“LOL, what happened to the others?” Verstappen asked.

“This was terrible. I mean, I’ll take it.”

PlanetF1.com recommends

Max Verstappen car collection: What supercars does the F1 World Champion own?

F1 driver net worth 2024: The 10 richest drivers on the F1 grid

Verstappen elaborated on that feeling of shock upon exiting the cockpit of his RB20, explaining that while practice gave him the confidence which he needed, he did not believe pole was on based on how the car felt come Sprint qualifying.

“Maybe that last session was just incredibly difficult to get the tyres to work, because already in SQ2 I didn’t feel great,” said the three-time World Champion.

“SQ3 I think it just felt quite similar for me, I didn’t really improve a lot on the soft, but somehow we were first.

“Of course, I’ll happily take it, but yeah, didn’t really feel enjoyable out there to drive for whatever reason.

“Because in practice, it felt really, really nice. I was very comfortable and confident. Qualifying, not so much.”

The top 10 on the Sprint grid was covered by just over eight-tenths, so Verstappen was asked whether this alternate format, with less practice time, contributed to this?

He suggested that the “track layout” may also play a role, though returned to the feeling of surprise that rivals could not better his pole time.

“I mean, honestly, I don’t know,” said Verstappen in response to that theory, “it might be the track layout a little bit.

“I thought after practice, I was quite confident that we could really fight for pole. Then in qualifying, it didn’t really look like that for me.

“But somehow, we still ended up in first. I don’t know what happened to the other cars in the last lap.”

Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez will launch from P3 on the Sprint grid.