Formula 1 News: Max Verstappen wins pole for 2025 GP of Miami

Max Verstappen turned a lap of 1m26.204s to win the pole for the 2025 GP of Miami Formula 1 race around the Miami International Autodrome.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

It was Verstappen’s third pole of the year, carrying the Red Bull sled on his back the entire year. His teammate in the same car, Yuki Tsunoda, was 0.739s behind Verstappen in 10th.

The Red Bull driver edged out Lando Norris by just 0.065s, with Kimi Antonelli in an impressive third — only two-thousandths of a second further back.

Verstappen, who earned the 43rd pole of his F1 career — and welcomed the birth of his daughter, Lily, earlier this week — joked: “Clearly being a dad doesn’t make me any slower!” He added: “It was a great qualifying. We made a small change to help rotate the car better and we improved with every run. I had a tiny moment at Turn 1 on the final lap, but it worked out.”

It’s been a great qualifying, I think we improved the car a tiny amount as well, which helped me to basically rotate it a bit better and honestly, you know Q1, Q2, Q3 just improving every run, really, trying to find a bit more the limit” said Verstappen.

“I had a tiny moment on my final lap into Turn 1, so I lost a bit of time there. But around here it’s just very complicated with the tires over a lap, but at the end it worked out well so I’m very happy to be on pole.”

Lando Norris in the superior McLaren was 2nd, just 0.065s behind Verstappen.

Hat’s off to Max, especially being a dad now,” said Norris, happy to beat his teammate.

“I was hoping he was going to slow down a little bit, but it clearly didn’t. So no, I’m happy with today. I’m happy with the progress I’ve been making with the car, with myself. So no, Max did a Max lap once again and I can’t fault him. So happy and yeah, excited for tomorrow.”

After Verstappen claimed provisional pole during the early runs of Q3 with a time of 1m26.492s, just 0.003s better than Norris, the Dutchman got snap oversteer in turn 1 of his 2nd lap but the best driver in F1 still went fastest at 1m 26.204s, six-hundredths clear of Norris who blew it by taking too much curb on the final corner on his 2nd flying lap.

Polesitter for the Sprint race, Kimi Antonelli, was third for Mercedes, just 0.067s behind Verstappen.

“I mean, this weekend is going well so far,” said Antonelli.

“I was a bit disappointing this morning, but it was good to bounce back this way and yeah, I struggled a little bit during the quali. I didn’t have such a clean run like I had yesterday. But yeah, that last lap was quite good. I was a bit too greedy in Turn 1 starting the lap, but the rest of the lap was quite good, so I’m happy with it.”

Points leader Oscar Piastri was 4th in the other superior McLaren, 0.171s behind Verstappen.

George Russell rounded out the top-5 in the #63 Mercedes, 0.181s behind Verstappen.

Lewis Hamilton, was out in Q2, the old man unable to improve on his lap. In fact, his 2nd run in Q3 was slower than his first.

Pierre Gasly was outqualified by Alpine teammate Jack Doohan for the first time and will start 18th, ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Haas’ Ollie Bearman on the back row in 19th and 20th.

Off track, the party atmosphere was in full swing across the Miami Campus. Fans were treated to A-list performances from Kaskade and Steve Aoki at the Hard Rock Beach Club. More major acts are scheduled for Sunday, including DJ Tiësto from the grid gantry before the race and the podium after the race, and GRAMMY® Award-winning artist and Miami native Pitbull performing after the main event to round off an unforgettable weekend in Miami Gardens.

2025 GP of Miami Qualifying Results