His title rival Max Verstappen was pressured into a small error that cost him and he could manage only third, with Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz in second, while the audience at the Miami International Autodrome’s first competitive session boisterously revelled in the show they put on. The drivers gave them a suitably feisty appetiser for Sunday’s race. On his first hot lap in Q3 Leclerc was quick through the first two sectors but Verstappen behind him was immense in the final, tight testing sequence of turns, his time of 1min 28.991sec had the edge over Leclerc by just six-hundredths. On the final laps, Leclerc once more opened the running and pushed hard, up in the first sector and again the middle he made the difference at the close setting a time of 1min 28.796sec. “It was a much, much better qualifying session than I’ve had for the last three races,” he said. Britain’s Jamie Chadwick won the opening race of the new W Series all-female championship season in Miami. “That was a bizarre race, I don’t know what happened but we will take that,” she said.

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