Why Verstappen's Miami pole lap was one of his best ever

“If you want a case study of how a racing driver can put together a lap in a slightly inferior car and get the pole, then we saw it this afternoon in Miami," Windsor began on his YouTube channel.

According to the Australian, Verstappen's lap in Miami ranks among the best he has ever done in Formula 1. "I thought it's getting to be very difficult to rate Max's pole laps over the years, but this has definitely got to be up there in my opinion."

Verstappen managed to defeat Lando Norris by only 0.065 seconds, while Friday's pole sitter Kimi Antonelli finished 0.067 seconds behind the Dutchman.

He continued: "Max had to find the advantage in Sectors 1 and 3. Sector 3 is a long straight, with a high-speed braking area at the end of it, so the key thing there for him was to be very clean and to do what he was doing in Saudi Arabia, just getting in beautifully quite early, the way he's coming out of the brakes the way he is patiently waiting for the throttle."

Verstappen also used the two set of fresh soft tyres available to him efficiently.

For Verstappen, it will be important to score points on Sunday, after he did not gain any thanks to an error by the Red Bull pit crew that resulted in an unsafe release and making contact with Kimi Antonelli in the pit lane during the Sprint.

The start will be also key, as in Jeddah, after Piastri dove down the inside of the Red Bull driver, Verstappen cut the corner, and received a five-second penalty by the stewards, leading to him eventually finishing in P2 behind the Australian.