Ferrari Secures P1 and P2 in Miami Grand Prix Qualifying, Still One More Bridge to Cross

But before we dive into the qualifying session, let's have a look at what happened in FP3. Ocon had a difficult start to the day, as he crashed in the same corner as Sainz did on Friday. The French driver suffered a massive shunt, which he describes as the biggest one of his racing career.

Reportedly, the impact was as strong as 51G. That's the same level experienced by Max Verstappen last year in his Silverstone crash. There have been some discussions regarding the lack of a Tecpro barrier in that corner, but a conclusion has yet to be reached.

Sergio Perez was the fastest driver of FP3, even though his best lap was slightly slower than what he had achieved on Friday. Charles Leclerc was 0.194 seconds slower, so he claimed P2. Max Verstappen was the only other driver to go faster than 1:31 for this session, and so he got away with third overall.

Both Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 drivers struggled with a lack of rear grip and porpoising yet again. Toto Wolff was certainly not happy to see Hamilton and Russell finishing in P15 and P17 at the end of FP3.

But everyone was eager to see how the qualifying session would unfold. Ultimately, this is what decides the line-up for the main event of the weekend. With Ocon not being able to go out on track just yet, only 19 drivers took part in the qualifying session.

Nicolas Latifi was the slowest driver in Q1, as he was almost 2 seconds behind the leader - Charles Leclerc. So his qualifying efforts came to an end after just 10 laps in total, as he wouldn't be given a chance to move on to Q2.

Alexander Albon, Zhou Guanyu, and Kevin Magnussen would suffer the same fate. As soon as Q2 started, it became clear that several drivers might just secure the first 1:28 lap of the weekend. Charles Leclerc was the closest man to do so, as the Ferrari driver had a fast lap of 1:29.130.

But Red Bull driver, Max Verstappen, had the same goal in mind. His fastest lap was 1:29.202. This time, a total of 5 drivers were knocked out of the qualifying session. If you need to understand how fast these guys are, just look at their fastest laps and compare them.

Pierre Gasly was the last driver to be granted permission to move on to Q3, with a time of 1:30.128. Fernando Alonso was not so lucky, as he was just 0.032 seconds slower. The slowest driver in Q2 was Mick Schumacher.

Looking at his fastest lap, he would have needed to improve by 0.296 seconds to make it into Q3. The other three drivers that failed to move on from Q2 were: George Russell, Sebastian Vettel, and Daniel Ricciardo. With the start of Q3, everyone started pushing the limits of their cars and skills even further than before.

As a result, a total of three drivers dipped below the 1:29 mark. Charles Leclerc put on a stunning performance, with a time of 1:28.796. He is this weekend's poleman, but that doesn't mean he's out of the woods just yet. Carlos Sainz was 0.190 seconds slower in Q3, but that was good enough to have him sitting in P3.

Meanwhile, Max Verstappen was right on his tail: 0.005 seconds, to be more exact! Sergio Perez will be starting the race from fourth place. One of the most surprising events, though, was seeing Valtteri Bottas ahead of Lewis Hamilton, albeit by just 0.150 seconds.

Scuderia AlphaTauri's Team Principal, Franz Tost, must be pretty proud of his drivers. Both Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda put on a strong performance in qualifying, claiming P7 and P9! Lando Norris will be starting the race from P8. Lance Stroll was the only driver in Q3 that didn't manage to dip below 1:30, but that still puts him in tenth on the grid.

Esteban Ocon will have a difficult mission ahead, as he has to work his way up from P20. Today's race starts at 3:30 PM (EDT), so be sure to tune in if you're curious to see who the first-ever Miami GP winner is going to be!