Max Verstappen is set to carry the flag single-handedly for Red Bull in the F1 Sprint at the 2025 Miami Grand Prix after qualifying in fourth place with Yuki Tsunoda only P18.
A surprise result in Florida on Friday saw Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli secure pole for the Miami Sprint and become the youngest pole-sitter in F1 history. The 18-year-old beat championship leader Oscar Piastri of McLaren by only 0.045 seconds to claim P1 on the grid.
Verstappen will also start behind McLaren’s Lando Norris on the second row of the F1 Sprint grid at the Miami GP. The Red Bull racer lapped the track based within the car parks of Hard Rock Stadium 0.255s slower than Antonelli and 0.155s slower than Norris with his 1:26.737.
Red Bull will also only fight with one car at the front as Tsunoda bowed out in SQ1 in Miami after setting a personal best lap time of 1:29.246 in the first phase. Verstappen finished the opening phase of Sprint Qualifying in P7 after managing a 1:27.953 during his first attempt.
Jenson Button wonders ‘how long’ Max Verstappen will stay ‘calm’ at Red Bull after qualifying P4 for the Miami Sprint
Yet, despite Verstappen being 0.255s slower than Antonelli in SQ3, Jenson Button found the Red Bull driver’s comments after Sprint Qualifying at the Miami GP strangely ‘calm’. He was especially surprised as Verstappen has become so accustomed to winning and taking poles.
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| Position | Drivers’ Championship | Points |
| 1 |
Oscar Piastri |
99 |
| 2 |
Lando Norris |
89 |
| 3 |
Max Verstappen |
87 |
| 4 |
George Russell |
73 |
| 5 |
Charles Leclerc |
47 |
| 6 |
Andrea Kimi Antonelli |
38 |
| 7 |
Lewis Hamilton |
31 |
Button said on Sky Sports F1 (02/05, 22:38): “It’s interesting to hear Max talk because for a guy who’s such a winner and we’re so used to seeing win, he’s very calm. He’s very calm in the position he’s in because he knows he’s doing the best job he can.
“I don’t know how long that’s going to last with him being calm qualifying fourth or fifth here and there. But he still thinks he’s got a chance in the Sprint.”
What has Max Verstappen said after Sprint Qualifying at the 2025 F1 Miami Grand Prix?
The Miami Sprint will now mark the third time through only the first six rounds of the 2025 F1 season that Verstappen will not start from the front row of a grid. He also qualified just P7 for the Bahrain Grand Prix, P4 for the Chinese Grand Prix and P3 for the Australian Grand Prix.
Verstappen scored his first front row start of the season with P2 for the Shanghai Sprint and would score pole for the Japanese and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix. Yet his poles came in very different conditions compared to the heat and slow corners that met F1 in Miami this week.
Still, the four-time reigning F1 drivers’ championship winner was relatively pleased with his Sprint Qualifying efforts in Miami after Verstappen secured P4. His joy at the result was also despite Red Bull giving Verstappen an updated floor in Miami that Tsunoda did not receive.
“What we did in Q3 was good,” Verstappen said, via BBC Sport. “The tyres are holding on quite well. But from P1, struggling with a lot of understeer in the car and with all the low-speed corners, you lose quite a bit of lap time.
“In the first sector, [we] were quite competitive because that’s where a few high-speed corners are. But as soon as you get to the low speed, we lack quite a bit of grip
“P4 is alright. You have to be realistic with the limitations we have at the moment, and it was still quite close.”
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