F1: Verstappen takes Miami sprint race pole

Red Bull's Max Verstappen grabbed pole position for the Miami Grand Prix sprint race on Friday, followed by Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.

Triple world champion Verstappen, who came from fourth on the grid to win the first sprint race of year at the Chinese Grand Prix, will start from the front on Saturday after clocking the top time of one minute, 28.194 seconds around a steamy Miami International Autodrome. He has taken four wins from five races this season, and dominates the rankings 25 points clear of 2nd-placed Perez.

The Dutch 26-year-old is looking to complete a Miami hat-trick having won the first race around the Hard Rock Stadium in 2022 and then again from ninth last May. He has started all five races this season from pole position, making him the only driver this century to achieve that feat. French great Alain Prost, with Williams in 1993, was the last driver to take the first six poles of a season.

RB's Daniel Ricciardo, despite clipping the wall, enjoyed his best qualifying effort of the year and will start fourth alongside the Mexican but ahead of the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, the only driver other than Verstappen to win a race this season at the Australian Grand Prix in late March.

There were more distractions this week for Red Bull with top designer Adrian Newey announcing he would be leaving the team at the end of the year but on the track the championship leaders continued their domination.

McLaren, who came into the Miami race with upgrades that they hoped will close the gap on the rampaging Red Bulls, continued to work out kinks as Australian young gun Oscar Piastri qualified sixth fastest, ahead of the Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso.

McLaren's Lando Norris, who started from pole in the sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix, could do no better than ninth in Miami with Haas's Nico Hulkenberg 10th.

It was a hugely disappointing qualifying effort from Mercedes with both seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton and George Russell going out in Q2. Russell will start 11th while Hamilton, who also brushed the wall, will line up 12th.

(With input from Reuters)