Red Bull’s Sergio Perez claimed his second pole position of the F1 2023 season at the Miami Grand Prix in Saturday’s qualifying session.

Perez’s lap of 1:26.841s, completed on his first run of Q3, was good enough for pole after Charles Leclerc’s crash saw the red flags come out with less than two minutes to go.

With no time left for drivers to return to the track to begin another run, the hour-long session was ended prematurely.

That came as particularly bad news for Perez’s team-mate Max Verstappen, who abandoned his first run after a wide moment in the first sector and was prevented from setting a representative lap due to Leclerc’s crash.

Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso will start alongside Perez on the front row with Leclerc’s Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz in third.

Haas driver Kevin Magnussen will start fourth and was one of the drivers to benefit from Leclerc’s crash, with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly qualifying fifth.

Seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton was downbeat about Mercedes’ prospects after Friday’s practice running and was unable to turn things around in qualifying, falling at the Q2 stage for the first time since Monza last year.

Meanwhile, McLaren were the shock elimination in Q1 with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri managing only 16th and 19th respectively.

Qualifying results from the Miami Grand Prix in full 

1 Sergio PEREZ Red Bull 1:26.841

2 Fernando ALONSO Aston Martin +0.361

3 Carlos SAINZ Ferrari +0.508

4 Kevin MAGNUSSEN Haas +0.926

5 Pierre GASLY Alpine +0.945

6 George RUSSELL Mercedes 0.963

7 Charles LECLERC Ferrari 1.020

8 Esteban OCON Alpine 1.094

9 Max VERSTAPPEN Red Bull No tieme

10 Valtteri BOTTAS Alfa Romeo No time

11 Alex ALBON Williams + 0.981

12 Nico HULKENBERG Haas +1.089

13 Lewis HAMILTON Mercedes +1.161

14 ZHOU Guanyu Alfa Romeo +1.277

15 Nyck DE VRIES AlphaTauri +1.581

16 Lando NORRIS McLaren +1.031

17 Yuki TSUNODA AlphaTauri +1.066

18 Lance STROLL Aston Martin +1.113

19 Oscar PIASTRI McLaren +1.121

20 Logan SARGEANT Williams +1.214

The article F1 2023 results: Qualifying results from the Miami Grand Prix appeared first on Planetf1.com.