Rain bucketed down at the Miami International Autodrome on Saturday morning and spiced up the 18-lap sprint race. A late and unexpected safety car saw the leading duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri make it a McLaren 1-2, respectively, with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton rounding off the top three.
Naturally, with both the teams being partners of Swiss luxury watchmaker, Richard Mille, the post-sprint interviews saw their monopoly, as all three drivers were sporting RM timepieces. However, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was on a mission to end that state of affairs and represent his team’s sponsors, Tag Heuer.
After showing some strong one-lap pace at the Saudi Arabian GP, two weekends ago, the Dutchman—a new dad after welcoming his daughter, Lily, earlier in the week—came into the Miami GP oozing on that confidence. On top of that, Red Bull had installed a new floor on his RB21, which seemingly improved its mid-corner balance woes to some extent.
While Verstappen wasn’t able to make inroads during sprint qualifying on Friday, he turned up the heat to challenge the MCL39s on Saturday. In the end, he edged out Norris by just 0.065 seconds to take pole position after a blistering final flying effort in the top 10 shootout.
Speaking to the media after the session, the four-time world champion was spotted sporting a Tag Heuer Monaco Chronograph. Retailing at $10,750, the Monaco Chronograph is one of the legacy offerings from the Swiss watchmakers based in Saint-Imier—finally putting an end to Richard Mille’s firm grasp on the weekend.
The exquisite Tag Heuer watch is an automatically winding timepiece fitted with a 39mm dial surrounded by titanium. The bezel is sculpted in the iconic square shape and comes with either a rubber or leather strap. In fact, the watch is an ode to the crown jewel of F1, the Monaco GP which Verstappen has won twice so far in his career.
Max Verstappen qualifies P1 in Miami just days after becoming a dad pic.twitter.com/7eUsk5REnn
— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) May 3, 2025
Having said that, it wasn’t as though Richard Mille was completely displaced. Norris, who will start the Grand Prix on Sunday alongside the Dutchman from the front row still represented the brand whilst rookie Kimi Antonelli (who set a lap time just 0.02 seconds slower than Norris) sported an IWC watch during his interview.
With Piastri starting on the second row of the grid for the race on Sunday, there are two drivers representing Richard Mille as their watch sponsor in the fight for the Miami GP win. However, with rain forecast for Sunday afternoon at the Miami International Autodrome, Verstappen once again sporting Tag Heuer on the top step of the podium cannot be ruled out.
