Charles Leclerc claimed pole position as Ferrari locked out the front row for 2022 Miami Grand Prix.
Having performed strongly across the weekend, Leclerc snatched pole with a superb final lap in Q3 to clinch his 12th pole position in F1 ahead of his Ferrari teammate, Sainz to secure a front-row lock out for Ferrari.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen rebounded from a difficult Friday Practice to secure third ahead of his teammate, Sergio Perez, which sets up another tense Ferrari vs Red Bull battle for the race.
Now here is a full roundup of FP3 and Qualifying for 2022 Miami Grand Prix.
FP3
Having missed most of FP2 due to hydraulic issues and damage repair respectively, Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas were amongst early runners out on track.
Verstappen proceeded to set the initial pace on medium tyres as he set a benchmark 1m 34.037 but his effort was quickly lowered by Leclerc to 1m 32.250 on softs just minutes later.
Both drivers then both improved in the 11th minute with Verstappen ultimately finding more pace to go top with 1m 31.355, which was 0.351 seconds quicker than Leclerc’s lowered lap time.
Mick Schumacher surprisingly popped up to third in the 14th minute moments before the red flag was shown, following a crash for Alpine’s Esteban Ocon on his first flier at Turn 14 in similar fashion to how Carlos Sainz spun out at that corner in FP2.
The session resumed 14 minutes later with Nicholas Latifi leading the field back out on track as several drivers opted for early Qualifying simulations in fear of a late red flag, whilst others gambled and focused on their programmes as planned.
Leclerc eventually displaced Verstappen with 17 minutes left as he posted 1m 30.981 on soft tyres, only to be displaced by Perez then Verstappen seven minutes later as the latter headed his Red Bull teammate by 0.050s.
Perez however fought back with four minutes left to finish top with 1m 30.304 ahead of Leclerc and Verstappen, although Verstappen was lucky to not cause a late red flag after he clipped the inside kerb at Turn 14 and half-pirouetted sideways into Turn 15 with two minutes left.
Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel meanwhile completed a surprise top five as Mick Schumacher, Sainz, Kevin Magnussen, Alex Albon and Lando Norris rounded out the top ten.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 1m 30.304 |
| 2 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.194 |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.345 |
| 4 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | + 0.732 |
| 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | + 0.745 |
| 6 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | + 0.746 |
| 7 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.868 |
| 8 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | + 0.923 |
| 9 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 1.197 |
| 10 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 1.290 |
| 11 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 1.355 |
| 12 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 1.361 |
| 13 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | + 1.424 |
| 14 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | + 1.581 |
| 15 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 1.586 |
| 16 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | + 1.597 |
| 17 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 1.620 |
| 18 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | + 1.747 |
| 19 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | + 2.072 |
| 20 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | No Time Set |
Qualifying
Q1
With track temperatures having fallen since FP3, several drivers opted to get straight out to secure banker laps in case of red flags as Magnussen and Schumacher led the field out for Q1 on soft tyres – minus Ocon who was ruled out with a cracked chassis.
Magnussen set the early benchmark lap time of 1m 33.148 but the track rapidly continued to evolve throughout the session, with everyone opting to stay out as long as possible to try and improve their position.
At the half-way point, the elimination zone comprised of; Latifi, Albon, Vettel and Bottas but the order continued to constantly change, with Hamilton finding himself stuck in the drop zone in the closing stages and forced to do a crucial one lap run.
Come the checkered flag, Latifi finished last of the 19 drivers who participated in Q1 and joins Ocon on the back row, whilst Albon qualified 18th behind Zhou and Magnussen who were also knocked out.
Leclerc meanwhile topped Q1 with 1m 29.474 ahead of Verstappen and Perez.
Q2
Schumacher was first out on track and set the initial benchmark lap time of 1m 30.423 but his time was quickly usurped by Leclerc, before Sainz went 0.025s quicker than the Monegasque but Verstappen went top with 1m 29.202 on new soft tyres.
Once everyone completed their opening laps, the bottom five contained; Lance Stroll, Schumacher, Vettel, Ricciardo and Russell, although Russell had to abandon his representative lap after making errors during the opening sequence of corners.
Russell eventually managed to post 1m 30.173 to go seventh whilst several drivers were in the pits preparing for final runs, in turn dropping Norris into the elimination zone.
Once the checkered flag fell, only Stroll avoided elimination as Schumacher finished last and will share the eighth row with his Haas teammate, Magnussen who was knocked out in Q1.
Ricciardo qualified 14th quickest behind Vettel, Russell and Alonso as the latter trio were only split by 0.052s, with Alonso missing out on Q3 by only 0.032s to Pierre Gasly.
Q3
With the ever-present threat of an unexpected red flag, everyone was straight out on track to try and secure an early banker lap.
Leclerc set the initial provisional pole benchmark of 1m 29.055 but his time was swiftly bettered by Verstappen, as the Dutchman posted 1m 28.991 to go top by 0.064s with Sainz, Perez and Bottas rounding out the top five after the opening laps as Hamilton only went sixth fastest.
Stroll was first out for the final runs with two laps left but as the checkered flag fell, it was Ferrari who locked out the front row as Leclerc posted 1m 28.796 to claim pole for the inaugural Miami GP ahead of Sainz.
Verstappen meanwhile failed to even better his best lap time on his final lap, which left him third on the grid as he seeks to further reduce his deficit to Leclerc in the title race.
Perez, Bottas, Hamilton, Gasly, Norris, Tsunoda and Stroll rounded out the top ten respectively.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1m 28.796 |
| 2 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.190 |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.195 |
| 4 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 0.240 |
| 5 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | + 0.679 |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.829 |
| 7 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | + 0.894 |
| 8 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.954 |
| 9 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 1.136 |
| 10 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 1.800 |
| 11 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 1m 30.160 |
| 12 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.013 |
| 13 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | + 0.054 |
| 14 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | + 0.150 |
| 15 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | + 0.263 |
| 16 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1m 30.975 |
| 17 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | + 0.045 |
| 18 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 0.291 |
| 19 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | + 0.350 |
| 20 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | No Time Set |
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