Lando Norris had been looking in stellar form throughout qualifying for Saturday's Sprint race in Miami and looked set to beat Max Verstappen to pole only for it all to go wrong at the last minute.
Norris and his McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri were quickest in the first round, and Norris retained the upper hand over the rest of the field by topping the times at the en dof SQ3.
The final round saw everyone switch to soft tyres for the first time, and the shortened duration of the session meant that drivers would have a single all-or-nothing hot lap to set their qualifying time.
Unfortunately Norris' chances of challenging Versteppen were quickly dashed when he made a series of mistakes in the first sector, leaving him eighth tenths off the pace of the Red Bull and no where near the front row of the grid.
“I just pushed too hard, as simple as that," Norris told the media in the paddock at Miami International Autodrome after ending up in ninth place on the Sprint grid.
"Just silly to be honest, a couple of mistakes in turn 1 and a big spiral from there," he admitted. “It's a shame. The team has done a good job, the upgrades are working.
“The car was feeling very good," he continued. "I'm happy with everything, just not with one thing.”
His downfall came with dramatic oversteer snaps through turns 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7 making up the opening sector around the Hard Rock Stadium. Even though the rest of his lap was much better, the damage had been done.
“So disappointed with today, but I will do my best tomorrow," he said, hinting that he felt "the pace was very good" and that the McLaren remained "probably one of the quickest" car out there.
Norris still has a chance to recover int he race and will then have a second bite at qualifying, this time for the Grand Prix. And he had the benefit of a full raft of upgrades this weekend, unlike Piastri.
Having lagged his team mate in SQ1 and SQ2, Piastri qualified ahead of Norris in sixth but admitted that the conditions toward the end had proved unexpectedly difficult.
“It was a really tricky session for everybody," he said, musing about “if the track changed a little bit or we all thought the soft was going to be a lot better.
"My lap felt pretty terrible and it was P6 so I think everyone must have had a bad run," he pointed out. “I think Lando did the quickest lap on the whole in SQ2, so a bit strange but I'll take P6."
As for Saturday, Piastri highlighted that the hot conditions could be the biggest challenge facing the drivers and the possible impact on tyre degradation in the Sprint where pit stops are not required.
“It's gonna be tough for everybody I think," he said. "But the tyres seem to be surviving ok, they are just very hot.
“Not too concerned, but it could be an exciting sprint," he concluded. "[There are] a few cars [starting] out of position. Nobody has really had much consistency, so it will be exciting.”
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