Max Verstappen’s former course record at the Miami International Circuit was beaten by not one but six drivers during qualifying for today’s sprint race.
However one driver who failed to get close to it was Verstappen’s latest team mate, Yuki Tsunoda.
He initially impressed with his performance compared to Verstappen when he replaced his previous team mate, Liam Lawson, at the Japanese Grand Prix last month. Since then he’s slipped further off Verstappen’s pace in qualifying, and after yesterday’s performance the gap between the two Red Bull drivers is now greater than it was over Lawson’s three-race stint.
Teams’ 2024 performance in context
Although last year’s Miami Grand Prix was the first race at which McLaren brought the upgrade which transformed their season, that wasn’t entirely reflected in their qualifying performance, and Red Bull continued to lead the way 12 months ago. Mercedes’ pace at this race last year, half a second off the quickest time, was quite typical of their season.
Over the first day of running in Miami, Mercedes showed promising signs of progress. This was most obvious when Andrea Kimi Antonelli claimed pole position for the sprint race, but they were quick in practice too.
The Mercedes drivers headed the practice times while drivers ran on the medium tyre compound. Their pace on the softer rubber has tended to be weaker so far this year, but we didn’t get to see it in that session as Antonelli and George Russell were unable to do their final runs due to a red flag.
However the W16’s behaviour on-track raised eyebrows among their rivals, Alexander Albon remarking that he didn’t believe the Mercedes could be legal after running behind one of them. As teams can change their set-up between the sprint race and qualifying for the grand prix, some may be running lower ride heights at this stage, knowing their cars will be lighter for today’s shorter race. It’s possible the Mercedes runs better in this state than other cars.
Only one team has not bettered its lap time from last year so far – Alpine. Jack Doohan dropped out in the first round of sprint race qualifying and Pierre Gasly clipped a barrier in SQ2.
Tsunoda made a mess of qualifying for the sprint race
Over the first three qualifying sessions of 2026 (one in Melbourne, two in Shanghai), Lawson was 0.879 seconds slower than Verstappen on average. The gap between the pair fell over that time, from 1.076s at the first race to 0.75s at the last, but Red Bull were not convinced Lawson would be able to get on terms with his team mate and replaced him with Tsunoda.
When Tsunoda got within half a second of Verstappen first time out at Suzuka, Red Bull’s decision seemed to be vindicated. But the gap between the two drivers has crept up since then, moving uncomfortably close to a second at the previous two rounds. On Friday, Tsunoda qualified 1.293s off Verstappen for the Miami sprint race, pushing his average deficit to 0.895s – higher than Lawson’s.
Tsunoda undoubtedly has the potential to do better. In Bahrain and Jeddah he produced better lap times in Q2 than in Q3. His sprint race qualifying effort on Friday was sloppy: While he railed at Oliver Bearman for emerging from the pits in front of him, Tsunoda lost far more time when he ran wide at turn 17. Then he failed to heed the repeated warnings of his race engineer to ensure he started his final lap on time.
Still, Lawson could just as well argue that his performances, over two tracks he had not previously driven at, also showed potential. Either way, when qualifying positions are being decided by such tiny margins, an average deficit of almost 0.9s is intolerable for any driver, and Tsunoda needs to start turning his potential into reality.
Verstappen was one of six drivers from four different teams who broke his 2023 course record for the Miami track. First among them was Antonelli, who lowered the best time by over three tenths of a second, to a 1’26.482. But that time may fall even further when drivers qualify again this afternoon for the grand prix.
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