Perez on pole as Leclerc crashes out, ends session early

Sergio Perez will start the Miami Grand Prix on pole with Fernando Alonso in second and Carlos Sainz third, as Charles Leclerc crashed out with less than 2 minutes to go in Q3, bringing out the red flags and ending the session early.

The Red Bull duo was quick to take the lead in Q1, with Perez on top followed by Verstappen. However, they switched places toward the end, and it was the Dutch driver who came out on top, with Sainz splitting them up in second place and Perez behind.

The struggle for Mercedes continued into qualifying - Lewis Hamilton touched the wall and suffered front wing damage as he locked up trying to avoid contact with Kevin Magnussen's Haas. The FIA noted the incident and is investigating the situation for impeding. At the same time, George Russell was complaining due to 'a lot of understeering' with his W14. In the end, they managed to improve and moved to Q2.

McLaren's nightmare continues as they had a poor performance and were eliminated in Q1, with Norris in P16 and Piastri in P19. Also, things aren't going great for Aston Martin either - Lance Stroll was eliminated in the first session and Fernando Alonso managed to finish it just in P12.

Yuki Tsunoda and Logan Sargeant were the other two drivers eliminated.

Not a lot changed in the second qualifying session - it was Verstappen at the top with Leclerc in second, and, after a massive improvement, Alonso in third. Sainz completed the top 4.

Nightmare for Hamilton continued, as the 7-time World Champion finished the session in P13, effectively knocked out and outqualified by teammate Russell who finished just in the edge in P10.

The other knocked out drivers were De Vries, Zhou, Hulkenberg, and Albon.

The final qualifying session ended early as Charles Leclerc crashed out of the session into the barriers, bringing out the red flags.

At the time, Sergio Perez was leading the session with Alonso in second and Carlos Sainz in third.

Later, it was announced the session would not be resumed. The results as they were now decided tomorrow's grid, affecting drivers like Verstappen, who will now start tomorrow in P9, and benefitting Magnussen who will do so in P4.