Max Verstappen has had a hectic couple of days ahead of the Miami GP this weekend. After having a baby with his girlfriend, Kelly Piquet, in Monaco on Thursday, the Dutchman had to rush to Florida to ensure he was present for the whole race weekend. While one would’ve expected Verstappen’s intensity to drop a notch or two, that’s far from the reality that unfolded on Friday afternoon.
Verstappen was on it to eke out the maximum pace out of the RB21 and was in the running for pole position during the sprint shootout. However, the Red Bull driver still fell short by over two-tenths of a second and ended up only P4.
While he initially went purple in all sectors on his final lap in SQ3, setting a lap time of 1:26.737 to take the provisional sprint pole, the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli usurped him comfortably. In fact, the Italian prodigy secured his maiden sprint pole as even both McLaren drivers fell short of beating his time of 1:26.482.
Now, Verstappen maximized his potential by securing a second-row slot on the grid for Saturday’s sprint race. However, when Red Bull boss Christian Horner was motivating him on the team radio, the reigning world champion did not resonate with the 51-year-old’s excitement.
“That’s a good effort Max, that gives you a good race car for tomorrow,” Horner said to Verstappen on the radio, to which, the 27-year-old replied, “Let’s see tomorrow.”
It seemed like a sarcastic quip against Red Bull’s lack of competitiveness of late. The RB21 has been struggling on several fronts, with tire degradation being an issue and the car’s mid-corner balance being all over the place, especially in low and medium-speed corners.
Horner: “That’s a good effort Max, that gives you a good race car for tomorrow.”
Max: “Let’s see tomorrow.”
— Verstappen News (@verstappenews) May 2, 2025
Coming to the Miami International Autodrome—a track that has several low and medium-speed corners—there was an expectation that Red Bull could face these issues once again as they did in Bahrain. However, Verstappen and his teammate Yuki Tsunoda have shown decent pace so far in the weekend.
That is why Horner was perhaps cautiously optimistic about Red Bull potentially being in the fight for a top-three finish, if not for the win. However, Verstappen isn’t buying into this optimism as of yet, having experienced this tendency of the Red Bull car becoming extremely tricky on unexpected occasions.
Starting from fourth, behind both McLaren cars, the four-time world champion may not be a favorite for the sprint race win in Miami. In fact, the Mercedes drivers could also be faster than Verstappen, owing to the W16 coming alive in Miami so far.
While Antonelli will start from pole, after showing rapid pace throughout the sprint shootout, his teammate George Russell could also join the fight. With Russell starting right behind the #1 driver in fifth, Mercedes would fancy their chances of fighting with McLaren to secure their first win of the season, be it in a sprint race.
