Miami Grand Prix: Max Verstappen beats Lando Norris to pole

“It’s been a great qualifying,” Verstappen said. “We improved the car a tiny amount, which helped me rotate it a bit better.

“Q1, Q2, Q3 improving every run. Trying to find the limit. I had a tiny moment into Turn One trying to find more time there but it’s very tricky here with the tyres. It’s qualifying, try to correct it and floor it out of the corner.”

It was a second piece of good news for the four-time champion this week, after the birth of his first child, a daughter called Lily.

Norris said: “Congrats to Max, especially being a dad now. I was hoping it would slow him down a bit but it clearly didn’t.

“Max did a Max lap again and I’m happy for him. The pace is there. I have been feeling good. It is what it is, I’m P2, Max on pole, ready to see what I can do into Turn One.”

Antonelli’s third place proved his pole in the sprint on Friday was not a flash in the pan, on a weekend where he is showing the spark of prodigious talent that convinced Mercedes to put the 18-year-old straight into their team in his debut season. He beat team-mate George Russell by 0.114secs.

It also made amends to some degree for a disappointing sprint result, where he lost the lead at the start and then was hit by Verstappen’s car in the pits and finished seventh.

“This weekend is going well so far,” he said. “It was a bit disappointing this morning, but happy to bounce back. I was a bit too greedy into Turn One but the rest of the lap was quite good. The gaps are super-tight.”

A strong showing for Williams in sixth and seventh underlined the troubles of Ferrari, where Leclerc was 0.483secs off the pace and Hamilton failed to make it into the top 10 shootout.

Hamilton was less than 0.1secs off Leclerc in the second session, but that was enough for four places.