Max Verstappen was notably absent from the paddock on Thursday at the Miami International Autodrome. It was later confirmed that the Dutchman would be skipping media day due to the birth of his child, but still, he arrived on time to suit up for practice ahead of Sprint qualifying.
There were speculations that he might miss Friday’s proceedings entirely, which would have ruled the Red Bull driver out of the sprint race. However, Verstappen made a hectic trip from his home in Monaco to take part in both practice and the sprint shootout sessions.
After qualifying fourth for the sprint race, the 27-year-old was among the first drivers to arrive at the track on Saturday morning, ahead of the weekend’s first race. Interestingly, his former arch-rival Lewis Hamilton had arrived just before him—something Verstappen noticed and pointed out to the nearby camera crew.
Verstappen highlighted how the Ferrari driver shared his professional work ethic, particularly their mutual commitment to punctuality in fulfilling their duties each day.
“You see that by the way. Seven-time world champion [Hamilton], four-time world champion [Verstappen]. The first in,” the #1 driver confidently smirked and headed to the paddock, as seen in the clip of his interaction posted by Red Bull on Instagram.
Verstappen was perhaps trying to insinuate that their punctuality is a factor behind their persistent success in F1. After all, he and Hamilton have been the only two drivers to win the world championship since 2017.
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While the British driver has been struggling in recent years and has been out of title contention, Verstappen has been impeccable during his streak of four consecutive titles. The Dutchman did not let his guard down, even on a weekend when his baby with girlfriend Kelly Piquet was born.
Verstappen promptly got back into the grind on Friday to maximize the RB21’s potential and seemed to have decent pace around the Miami International Autodrome. In fact, the Red Bull driver had provisional pole, only to be denied by Kimi Antonelli, who put in a stellar lap to clinch his maiden pole in F1, albeit for the sprint race.
Even the McLarens outqualified Verstappen at the last moment of SQ3, dropping him down to P4. Nevertheless, the reigning world champion seems dialed in to maximize his result at the Miami GP.
With this being a sprint weekend, Verstappen will be keen on securing additional points in the sprint race to avoid losing too much ground in the championship battle. While Red Bull isn’t as competitive as the front-runners, McLaren, the Dutchman is still 12 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri. At this stage, every point is gold dust for Verstappen.
