On the other side of the garage, team mate George Russell had posted an initial benchmark in SQ3 after setting his lap earlier than his competitors, but ultimately found himself pushed down to fifth place.
Looking back on the session and why he opted to run early, Russell explained: “Firstly massive congrats to Kimi – really pleased to see [that]. He did an amazing job, he’s been really quick all day, really impressive.
F1 EXPLAINS: The making of the Miami Grand Prix
“I’ve been struggling a little bit today, a little bit off the pace, not been so comfortable and we just wanted to go on the early side because ultimately I didn’t quite have that confidence, and we thought maybe if there’s a red or a yellow [flag] at the end of the session it would come our way. But P5 today, not great – more to improve, but amazing for Kimi and the team.”
Pushed on why he has been struggling for confidence so far in Miami, the Briton responded: “These Sprint race weekends are challenging. If you get in the groove early, you can just build from there, and just all day today I haven’t quite felt it in the car, especially the tyres sliding around a bit.
“But as I said, it’s Sprint [Qualifying] today – obviously disappointing not to be further up the grid, but really happy for Kimi.”
