Leclerc leads Ferrari 1-2 in qualifying as Verstappen fluffs final effort

Charles Leclerc secured pole position at the end of a closely-fought qualifying session at the Miami Grand Prix that saw Ferrari lock out the front row.

Leclerc's lap of a 1:28.796 meant he edged out teammate Carlos Sainz by less than 0.2 seconds in the Florida sunshine.

Max Verstappen complained of oversteer during his final hot lap as he saw provisional pole position turn into P3. His Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, will start behind him in fourth.

Valtteri Bottas qualified an impressive P5 for Alfa Romeo, with Lewis Hamilton the lead Mercedes in P6.

George Russell will start the race down in 12th in the other Mercedes after he failed to make it through to Q3; Daniel Ricciardo will start 14th in his McLaren.

Russell lacked confidence as he made Q2 exit

While Ferrari and Red Bull graduated to Q3 with ease, Mercedes were unable to see both of their cars through to the top-10 shootout.

Russell was forced to abandon his final lap, with his best time proving not to be good enough to earn him a place in qualifying's third and final round.

Speaking to his race engineer via the team radio, the youngster complained that he had "no confidence" in his car as the tables turned in his battle with Hamilton.

There was also disappointment for Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) and Ricciardo (McLaren) who both left time on the table while their teammates made it through.

Ricciardo's exit means he is now 5-0 down in his qualifying battle with younger teammate Lando Norris, whose fastest Q2 lap time saw him place third.

Fernando Alonso (Alpine) - who blamed a slow Sainz for his exit - and Mick Schumacher (Haas) will start Sunday's race 11th and 15th respectively.

Close call for Hamilton in Q1 and Magnussen exits

It was a close call for Hamilton in Q1 as he spent much of the session in the drop zone, only to escape with a late lap.

The Briton had to dodge traffic on his final tour of the circuit, but was able to place fifth by the chequered flag, ahead of teammate Russell.

Kevin Magnussen's exit was the shock of the first session as he fell into the bottom five in the final moments. Alex Albon, Nicholas Latifi and Guanyu Zhou joined him.

Esteban Ocon, meanwhile, will start the race from the back of the grid after he missed qualifying following his crash during Saturday's practice session.

That collision sent him to the Medical Centre, but after being given the all-clear, Alpine discovered a crack in his chassis.