Max Verstappen says he no longer feels like a “passenger” in his Red Bull after returning to the front row of the grid at the Miami Grand Prix.
The four-time world champion has suffered a tough start to the season, amid bitter unhappiness at the sport’s new regulations, and sits ninth in the standings.
But Red Bull’s significant upgrades have slashed their deficit to the dominant Mercedes and Verstappen showed his class to claim a spot on the front row behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli.
The Italian claimed his third successive pole, bouncing back from a challenging sprint where he finished fourth before being demoted to sixth due to repeated track limits infringements.
But Verstappen was thrilled to be only 0.166 seconds adrift after qualifying only 11th last time out in Japan.
“I feel a lot more confident and I don’t feel like I’m a passenger anymore in the car. To be on the front row after coming from a second behind in the last race is incredible,” Verstappen said.
“When I get a car more together I get more confidence and I can finally push a bit more.
“A lot of things (have improved). So many things were not working until this weekend.”
Lando Norris, who clinched his first victory of the season by winning Saturday’s sprint, finished only fourth behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
George Russell, who cut team-mate Antonelli’s lead in the standings to seven points after his sprint demotion, has struggled to match the Italian’s pace in Miami and could manage only fifth.
Mercedes have brought smaller updates to Miami than their rivals and Antonelli’s pole will therefore be a major boost ahead of what could be a wet race.
“It was a good lap, very clean, put everything together,” Antonelli said.
“I probably got a bit too excited (on the last lap) and braked too hard but lucky it was good enough because you never know, especially with Max and Charles. Happy that we were able to keep the pole.”
The FIA has made a rain hazard declaration ahead of Sunday’s race, with the chance of rain forecast at over 40 per cent.
It will be the first time many drivers will have run the new generation of cars in wet conditions and many are expecting it to prove a challenge.
“It’s going to be tricky because so many drivers did not use it in the wet. Hearing feedback it is not the easiest in the wet,” Antonelli added.
Lewis Hamilton, who starts sixth for Ferrari, has done more wet-weather driving in these cars than most – at pre-season testing in Barcelona and during two days at the team’s Fiorano track.
“It was pretty horrible in Barcelona, it was not a fun day, it was very slippery, it wasn’t the most fun but the wet’s not usually that fun nowadays,” he said.
“Back in the day when we had grippier tyres it was a bit better. Fiorano was painful because it was 300 laps over two days.”
