Verstappen stunned by own pole: 'It felt terrible'

It could already be heard on Red Bull Racing's team radio: Max Verstappen himself almost did not believe he had pole position to take for the sprint race in Miami. After the sprint qualifying, he explained where that reaction came from.

Verstappen surprised by pole for sprint race Miami

Judging by his initial reaction after the sprint shootout, you wouldn't immediately think Verstappen took pole position. ""It felt really terrible. Maybe that last session was just incredibly difficult to get the tyres to work," he reflected on the session.

"Already in SQ2, I didn't feel great. SQ3, it just felt quite similar to me. "I didn't really improve on the soft. Somehow we were first. Of course, I happily take it," he added. "But it didn't feel enjoyable out there to drive for whatever reason because in practice it felt really, really nice, I was very comfortable and confident, qualifying, not so much."

He continued: "It might be the track layout a little bit. I thought after practice, I was quite confident we could fight for pole, then in qualifying it didn't really look like that for me. But somehow we ended up in first. I don't know what happened to the other cars on that last lap."

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