Charles Leclerc has expressed hope that Ferrari could face Max Verstappen at the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday.
Verstappen has maintained his confident form at the sprint weekend in Miami so far and has been ahead in every session. He will look to follow up his victory over Leclerc in Saturday’s short-form sprint into Sunday’s 57-lap feature race.
But on a weekend where the entire field – including Verstappen – battled for consistency in tire performance on the Miami road course, Leclerc takes heart from the fact that in the 19-lap sprint, when he was inside the finish line, relatively narrowly passed the world champion. For most of the race he was two seconds ahead of the Red Bull.
The race on Sunday will be broadcast live Sky Sports F1 and starts at 9 p.m., set-up from 7:30 p.m.
“He’s obviously very strong as always going into race day,” Leclerc said of pole-sitter Verstappen, who leads the F1 grid for the seventh race in a row.
“This morning [in the Sprint] we were close. He said he is not happy with the car, so let’s see how happy he is with the car [in the grand prix]. I hope that he is still a little dissatisfied and that we can put pressure on him.
“We’ve made some progress compared to this morning, they have too, but if we get the DRS after the first lap I think we might be able to keep up with him.”
In the post-qualifying press conference, Leclerc added: “In the sprint we were closer to what we normally see. We need to see how much progress he makes, but we also need some fine-tuning on our part.”
“If we have a similar pace to the sprint, we can use strategy to apply some pressure.”
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Miami Grand Prix qualifying highlights
Ferrari’s bid to beat Red Bull for the second time in six races this season could be helped by the fact that Leclerc and his teammate Carlos Sainz, who qualified third, will start between Red Bull duo Verstappen and Sergio Perez , who will compete in fourth place .
“I think when Max starts at the front it is always difficult to find a way to beat him, but having two cars is our best bet,” said Sainz, the only driver to beat Verstappen in the last 25 races .
“Of course, if you look at the latest statistics, it will be extremely difficult, but we will do our best.”
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Despite the pole position, Max Verstappen described qualifying as unpredictable as several drivers on the grid had grip issues
Sky Sports F1’s live Miami GP schedule
Sunday, May 5th
6:05 p.m.: F1 Academy Race 2
7:30 p.m.: Preparation for the Grand Prix Sunday Miami GP*
9 p.m.: The MIAMI GRAND PRIX*
11 p.m.: Checkered flag: Miami GP reaction*
Midnight: Ted’s Notebook*
*also live on Sky Sports Main Event
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