Verstappen ties Prost’s record with sixth pole

Max Verstappen inched closer to a third consecutive win at the Miami Grand Prix by continuing his long domination of Formula 1 qualifying.

The three-time reigning F1 champion won his seventh consecutive pole, but rst at Miami, where Verstappen failed to earn the top starting spot in the rst two races around Hard Rock Stadium, yet still won them both.

“I don’t know what it is, every single year we come

Verstappen celebrates after securing top spot.

here I nd it extremely difcult to be consistent with the car feeling, with the tire feeling over one lap,” Verstappen said. “I think we did OK. It’s not the most enjoyable lap of my career, but we’re on pole and that’s the most important.”

The pole-winning run tied Verstappen with Alain Prost in opening the season with six consecutive poles. Prost did it in 1993.

“Good start,” Verstappen radioed his team. “Let’s keep it going.”

Verstappen opened Saturday with a win in the sprint race and ended the day with his 38th career pole.

The Red Bull driver turned a lap at 1 minute, 27.241 seconds to best the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. and will lead the eld to green on Sunday for the rst of F1’s three races this year in the United States.

Verstappen has won four of the rst ve F1 races this season.

Sergio Perez, Verstappen’s teammate at Red Bull, qualied fourth and was followed by McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who were likely disappointed after upgrades brought to Miami has the team hoping to move closer to competition with Red Bull and Ferrari.

Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton qualied sixth and seventh and were followed by Nico Hülkenberg of Haas and Yuki Tsunoda of Red Bull’s junior team.