F1 star's genius move to gain ADVANTAGE spotted by pundit

Checo, Alonso, Sainz, 2023, Miami, generic, social — Photo: © IMAGO

Miami Grand Prix

F1 star's genius move to gain ADVANTAGE spotted by pundit

A F1 star has made the most out of a poor qualifying to gain an advantage for the Miami Grand Prix.

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Sunday 5 May 2024 18:00

One F1 driver has used their wits to gain an advantage for the Miami Grand Prix despite a poor qualifying performance.

The Miami GP hosts the second sprint race of the season, back-to-back with the Chinese Grand Prix sprint last time out.

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Max Verstappen took his second sprint race victory of the season, and was not the only driver to maximise their result.

Daniel Ricciardo temporarily silenced his critics by finishing a season-best fourth, ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.

Daniel Ricciardo has had mixed fortunes at the Miami GP

F1 star makes the most out of difficult Miami qualifying

Adding to his troubles Ricciardo also has a three-place grid penalty carried over from the Chinese GP after overtaking during the safety car, meaning he will start the race last.

In addition to Ricciardo, the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll also had a difficult qualifying.

"A little bit disappointed with qualifying for us. P15 in Q1, P15 in Q2, so I didn't have much pace today," Alonso said to Autosport.

"We made some set-up changes since this morning - looking at the time, they probably didn't work as expected and we are a little bit less competitive than normal.”

Fernando Alonso utilises his experience to make the most out of a poor qualifying

Despite the disappointing session, Alonso already has his eyes on the race tomorrow.

Ted Kravitz noticed a clever trick the Spanish driver deployed to use qualifying to his advantage for the race tomorrow.

“If you noticed that Fernando went into the pits on the last lap, he was laying rubber in the pit box so that Aston Martin can have better and quicker pit stops tomorrow,” Kravitz said via Sky Sports F1.

“Brilliant idea, when he’s out of the points, great idea for Aston Martin and for Fernando Alonso.”

Max Verstappen Daniel Ricciardo Fernando Alonso Miami Grand Prix Lance Stroll Chinese Grand Prix