Leclerc secures the first pole at the Miami Grand Prix, Ferrari record their first front row lock-out since the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix and Russell fails to reach Q3 for the second race in a row. Here are the facts and statistics from qualifying at the 2022 Miami Grand Prix.
LECLERC ON POLE
Charles Leclerc secured pole position for the inaugural Miami Grand Prix, taking the 12th pole position of his Formula 1 career. He equals Gerhard Berger and David Coulthard for 33rd in the all-time list of most F1 poles.
Leclerc took Ferrari’s 14th pole position in the United States – the team’s first in the country since Michael Schumacher took pole at Indianapolis for the 2006 United States Grand Prix.
Leclerc becomes the 36th different driver to take pole position for a World Championship Grand Prix in the United States.
For the first time since the 2012 United States Grand Prix, Mercedes failed to take pole position for the first race at a brand new venue. This is the first time Ferrari have secured the first pole at a new venue since Felipe Massa took pole at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.
Leclerc has now qualified on the front row at all of the first five races of the 2022 season.
THE TOP 10
With Carlos Sainz qualifying in second place, Ferrari lock-out the front row of the grid for the first time since the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix.
This is the second time that Sainz has qualified on the front row. He last did so at the 2021 Russian Grand Prix.
With third place, Max Verstappen made this the 12th race in a row at which he has qualified in the top four.
Valtteri Bottas qualified in fifth place, recording his best qualifying result of the season to date.
Lewis Hamilton qualified in sixth place, making this Hamilton’s first race in the United States during his Formula 1 career for which he has qualified outside of the top five.
Both Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda reached Q3, recording AlphaTauri’s first double Q3 appearance since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Both drivers recorded their best qualifying result of the year to date, with Gasly seventh and Tsunoda ninth. This was Tsunoda’s first Q3 appearance since the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Lance Stroll qualified in tenth place, reaching Q3 for the first time since the 2021 Turkish Grand Prix. With Sebastian Vettel having reached Q3 at the last race, this is the first time Aston Martin have appeared in Q3 at consecutive races since the 2021 Russian and Turkish Grands Prix.
With Fernando Alonso failing to reach Q3, Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz are now the only drivers to have reached Q3 at every race in 2022.
OUT IN Q2
Fernando Alonso failed to qualify in the top ten for the first time in 2022. It makes this the first race since the 2021 Mexico City Grand Prix that neither Alpine driver has reached Q3.
George Russell qualified in twelfth place, making this the first time that at least one Mercedes driver has failed to reach Q3 at two consecutive races since the 2014 German and Hungarian Grands Prix.
OUT IN Q1
Zhou Guanyu qualified in 17th place, recording the first Q1 elimination of his Formula 1 career. It was also the first Q1 exit for Alfa Romeo in 2022.
Both Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi were out in Q1. This was the Williams team’s fourth consecutive double Q1 exit. Albon’s Q2 appearance at the Bahrain Grand Prix remains the only time this season that a Williams driver has made it out of Q1.
Williams’ current streak of four double Q1 exits is their longest such streak since both drivers were out in Q1 at 23 consecutive races between the 2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix.
Nicholas Latifi qualified on the back row for the fourth time in the last five races.
Esteban Ocon was unable to take part in qualifying. He was therefore eliminated in Q1, recording successive Q1 eliminations for the first time since the 2021 Styrian and Austrian Grands Prix. This is the fourth time that Ocon has recorded successive Q1 exits in his career. It’s the first time Ocon has qualified on the back row of the grid at two consecutive races since the 2016 Japanese and United States Grands Prix.