Verstappen still struggling to find consistency in Miami

It might look to others that it's been plain sailing for Max Verstappen this weekend in Miami, but that's not the view from inside the cockpit with the Red Bull driver concerned he's lacking single-lap consistency.

On Friday, Verstappen took pole position for the 19-lap Sprint race and duly took victory after fending off Charles Leclerc from lights to flag.

And a few hours later it didn't look like Verstappen was under any undue pressure as he sailed to his sixth pole in the first six rounds of the season, tying a record previously set by Alain Prost 30 years ago in 1993.

But despite what looks to be perfect dominance to those watching on, Verstappen himself insisted that he was not happy with his performance today.

"I don't know what it is," he said in parc ferme after the session. "Every single year that we come here, I find it extremely difficult to be very consistent with the car feeling, the tyre feeling over one lap

• Read also: Verstappen back on Miami pole again ahead of Leclerc for Sunday GP

"It's just super hard to make sure sector one feels good, and sector three at the end of the lap. To make that happen together,"he explained. "It's incredibly tough, and again today it was really about finding that balance.

"It's not necessary the most enjoyable lap out of my career, just because of how slippery it is," he added. "You're not very confident on the lap, but we are on pole and that's of course the most important."

At least this season, under the new Sprint format rules the team are able to make set-up changes between the end of the Sprint race and the start of qualifying for the Grand Prix.

"I think we definitely improved the car a bit," Verstappen acknowledged. "I think we did okay. It definitely feels a little bit more under control, which I was looking for.

“I think we know what we did wrong [at the start of the Sprint], what I did wrong as well," he offered. “Hopefully that will help us out tomorrow, but we’ll find out.

"I’m sure that if I do my things correctly – and we’re just very good with what we have been doing in the last few starts – it should be alright.”

While Verstappen will be starting Sunday's race from the front, his team mate Sergio Perez will be on the row behind lining up in fourth place putting him alongside Ferrari's Carlos Sainz.

“Unfortunately I didn’t get a clean Q3 run when the track was at its best, Perez said of qualifying. "Then I did a slight mistake into turn 8, which cost me at least the front row, probably pole. We just didn’t maximise it.

“It was quite tricky,” Perez admitted. "It hurts to miss out on the front row by a couple of hundredths, but it’s how it is - the margins are super close," he told the media.

"We made some mistakes with how we were setting up going into qualifying so we’ve got to push and understand the issues. But we are getting a lot closer now," he asserted. “But I’m optimistic."

As for Sunday's race and his chances of getting ahead of the Ferraris, Perez said: “It’s going to be quite tricky given that they are strong. They have some really strong pace. It will be an interesting battle with them tomorrow.”

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