'Verstappen more comfortable': Lambiase draws positives from Miami

The four-time world champion set the fifth-fastest time in Sprint Qualifying, finishing ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton. His race engineer, GP Lambiase, was also satisfied with Red Bull Racing's Friday in Miami.

He said in the team's video on social media: "It’s been a very positive day for us as a team. I think, obviously, as you mentioned, four or five weeks between races has given all teams the opportunity to really reflect on the first test and first couple of races, understand the limitations of the car, understand any other issues that may have been hindering the balance and I think as a team we've done that very well. We've got on top of not only generic performance, but some other perhaps more fundamental issues with the car that we had and Max is feeling extremely comfortable and that reflected in his performance today."

Verstappen's teammate, Isack Hadjar, had some issues on his RB22. The Frenchman finished ninth in SQ3 yesterday. GP continued: "Isack has carried some, let’s say, issues throughout the day on torque delivery, so we're trying to understand that and how that's been affecting both his power but also the torque delivered from the car in traction and during his downshifts. So that'll be an area of focus for us to avoid a similar situation for qualifying and race on Saturday and Sunday."

Lambiase then concluded on a positive note: "Overall it's been a very good day, a very positive start, but we won't stop there. We’ll look to build on that overnight."