Miami Grand Prix: Max Verstappen gets a daughter, pole as Oscar Piastri feels the heat
How is Max Verstappen doing it? How did he win in Japan in an inferior car? How did he top qualifying at Suzuka and Jeddah? How did he grab pole at Miami, baby, after the birth of his first baby, baby?
Oh, baby. Oscar Piastri’s nerves will be tested and perhaps shredded like the softest of Pirelli tyres by Max Verstappen’s refusal to concede the Formula One drivers’ championship without milking every last drop of juice from the stuttering and stammering Red Bull he wrestled to pole position at the Miami Grand Prix.
Verstappen’s car is such a clunker he should pawn it off at South Florida Auto Sales on 27th Ave. He was forecast to be off the pace all season because the dream machine McLarens of Piastri and Lando Norris are infinitely superior, with better steering, and better control, and better suspension, and better sidepods, and better race pace, and better front wings, and better rear wings, and better everythings, but the Dutch four-time world champion is driving the wheels off his RB21.
How is Verstappen doing it? How on earth did he win the Japanese Grand Prix in an inferior automobile? How did he top qualifying at Suzuka and Jeddah? How did he grab another pole at Miami, baby, after the birth of his first baby, baby? Regardless of the result of the sixth race of the season on Monday morning (AEST), Piastri knows that week in and week out, from Miami to Monaco and all stops between now and the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP in December, Verstappen is coming after him like he’s commandeered a cop car and put the siren on.
Asked how he’s staying in the fight with the McLarens, Verstappen said without a lot of emotion: “By not having a lot of emotion in a lot of things. In racing, I’ve been doing it for so long that nothing really spooks you anymore.
“I’ve said for a long time that once you achieve your dreams in the sport in terms of winning races and titles, it also relaxes you a lot. Even when you have a bad day it doesn’t really matter. It’s about how you fix things. How you move on from it. You just focus on the next thing. It calms you down.”
Anyone who’s been to Miami knows the constant refrain. Why are we still out at 3am? It’s Miami, baby! We are we shirtless and riding skateboards? It’s Miami, baby? Why is every man, woman and child wearing a Heat singlet? It’s Miami, baby! Verstappen missed the first day of practice at Miami, baby, to be at the birth of his first baby, Lily, at Monte Carlo. Word at the water coolers on pit lane was that he would be distracted by his baby but oh baby, he didn’t miss a beat.
“My baby was something different,” he said of his emotions. “I think I’ve never been that nervous in a resting heart-rate state. Clearly, it didn’t make me slower, being a dad, so that’s a positive. We can throw that out of the window for people mentioning it. I don’t really listen to these kinds of silly things, I just do my thing. I think there’s enough racing drivers in the past who have been world champions after having kids. Honestly, I don’t know where this has even come from.
Verstappen’s Monte Carlo baby was born on Friday. “It’s been good to be able to spend a few days at home before coming here,” he said. “When your daughter has just been born, you want to make sure everything is okay. I’m in contact a lot with my girlfriend anyway throughout the day, getting pictures and on FaceTime a bit. It’s always there but now there’s just one more member in the family.”
The Miami GP weekend started with Olympic legend Michael Johnson telling Piastri and the rest of the grid: “It’s you, the car, the clock.”
The baby-faced Piastri has driven his McLaren MCL39 like he’s spending time with a soulmate this year, and the clock has invariably approved of the union, but the Melburnian had a tough day at the office on the eve of the main race, pushed back to second by Norris, rotten luck and a safety car in the sprint, which carried only a handful of rankings points.
“I did pretty much everything right,” Piastri said. “A bit disappointed to come away with second but that’s how it goes sometimes. Had to get my elbows out in that one. Happy with what I did. Racing is a pretty cruel business and hopefully that means I get a bit of luck this afternoon in qualifying.”
Not to be. It went even worse in qualifying. Piastri, the car and the clock were out of sync. On a challenging, chicane-heavy track skirting Hard Rock Stadium, the home of the Miami Dolphins, baby, Verstappen plucked a sizzling lap of 1min26.204sec from thin air before Piastri fell 17-thousandths of a second in arrears. No time at all, really, but somehow milliseconds are an eternity in F1.
“I just fell out of my rhythm a little bit,” Piastri said. “My best lap in qualifying was in Q2 so I peaked a bit early, some may say, and I just couldn’t get in the rhythm in Q3.
“The car was great and really deserved more, unfortunately.
“Both laps in Q3 were quite scruffy and that’s the price you pay. I’m just trying to get as many points as I can. It’s still far too early to start thinking about the championship.”
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