Miami Grand Prix: Qualifying Recap

A radio issue meant that Magnussen drove the entirety of his Q1 qualifying effort without communication from his engineer. As a result, he remained on-track on a single set of Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires for the duration of the 18-minute knockout leg. The Dane exited the session in P16 with a best lap of 1:30.975. Schumacher fared better and on his first set of soft tires he recorded a fastest lap of 1:31.074. The German pitted for a second set of rubber and duly delivered a quicker lap of 1:30.645 to go P11 at the checkered to graduate into Q2.

Schumacher’s best effort in Q2 was a 1:30.423 on softs to qualify P15 on the grid for Sunday’s race. Charles Leclerc completed a clean sweep of all three qualifying sessions – capturing pole position in Q3 with a blistering lap of 1:28.796 ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz for an all-Scuderia Ferrari front-row.

Kevin Magnussen, Driver No. 20, Haas F1 Team

“It’s going to be a crazy race tomorrow and hopefully we can fight back. The car is good, but we had no radio so that meant we couldn’t communicate between myself and the team – we only did one long run in Q1 instead of two short ones. Anyway, points are tomorrow, and we’ll see what we can do with strategy, we’ve got good pace and I’m still optimistic.”

 

Mick Schumacher, Driver No. 47, Haas F1 Team

“It was unfortunate as we had the hope of getting into Q3, I just think we weren’t there in terms of pace. Still, I’m happy overall as we made the right calls at the right time, we just didn’t manage to improve on the new tires. The track seems to be quite difficult and challenging in many ways so mistakes will happen, but as long as they don’t happen to us, that’s good.”

 

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal, Haas F1 Team

“After a good FP3 today, we didn’t turn that into a good qualifying – we ended up P15 and P16 for various reasons. For Kevin, his radio didn’t work, so we had an issue there because we had a plan in place but we couldn’t execute it because we couldn’t talk to him. With Mick, we got into Q2 but we didn’t put a lap together. Tomorrow, we start 15th and 16th and hopefully we can make something out of it because the car was not too bad on the long run on Friday. Let’s wait for tomorrow and see what we can do.”
 

Today's Data

Event: Qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix – Saturday May 7
Location: Miami International Autodrome, Florida, USA
Layout: 5.41-kilometer (3.36-mile), 19-turn circuit
Weather: Mostly Sunny
Air Temps: 33 degrees Celsius (91.4 degrees Fahrenheit)
Track Temps: 53 degrees Celsius (127.4 degrees Fahrenheit)
Team Result: Mick Schumacher qualified 15th, Kevin Magnussen qualified 16th 

Free Practice 3 Rundown:

Schumacher: 6th overall (1:31.050), 18 laps completed
Magnussen: 8th overall (1:31.227), 20 laps completed
Fastest: Sergio Perez of Red Bull Racing (1:30.304)

Q1 Qualifying: 18-mins with all 20 drivers – Top 15 advance to Q2

Schumacher: 11th overall (1:30.645) – Advanced to Q2
Magnussen: 16th overall (1:30.975) 
Fastest: Charles Leclerc of Scuderia Ferrari (1:29.474)

Q2 Qualifying: 15-mins – Top 10 advance to Q3

Schumacher: 15th overall (1:30.423) 
Fastest: Charles Leclerc of Scuderia Ferrari (1:29.130) 

Q3 Qualifying: 12-mins featuring the Top 10 

Pole Winner: Charles Leclerc of Scuderia Ferrari (1:28.796)