Verstappen headed Charles Leclerc at the end of the abridged three-part session, with Sergio Perez third.
Ricciardo was only 0.4s away from Verstappen at the end of the session, while his RB team-mate could do no better than 15th.
Good early pace for McLaren promised a strong result early in the session, but that speed disappeared in SQ3 and Oscar Piastri slipped to sixth and Lando Norris ninth.
Miami GP: Sprint Qualifying Results
Having stopped on track in the early minutes of opening practice, Leclerc was out as the session began.
He completed an installation lap in his Ferrari, cycling back to the pits without setting a time.
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The early laps left Verstappen fastest from Perez, the Red Bull Racing duo bumping the Aston Martin pair from the top of the timesheets (Fernando Alonso having tagged the wall out of Turn 16).
Verstappen’s early best was 1:28.601s, a time almost matched by Piastri who managed a 1:28.639s.
Despite the lack of running earlier in the day, Leclerc mustered a 1:28.654s with what was effectively his first timed lap.
Piastri had a moment with Valtteri Bottas at Turn 1, the Sauber turning in on the McLaren driver.
The Australian approached quickly as the Finn was touring into the opening corner.
It was an incident officials deemed they would investigate following the session.
As that was happening, Norris went fastest with a 1:27.939s while Kevin Magnussen sat third, 0.4s slower in the Haas.
As the flag waved to end the segment, Alex Albon was caught in 16th, joined on the sidelines by Pierre Gasly, Zhou Guanyu, Bottas, and Logan Sargeant. Albon’s lap was subsequently deleted, which dropped him to 20th for the Sprint.
At the other end of the timesheets, McLaren enjoyed a one-two with Norris ahead of Piastri by 0.12s.
The initial laps as SQ2 began saw Perez from Leclerc with Ricciardo third best, 0.257s off the Red Bull Racing.
Piastri couldn’t do better with his first lap, though Norris could as he moved on to provisional pole with a 1:27.597s.
Verstappen elected for a single run late in the session, while Mercedes sent its pair out on used soft tyres for a second effort.
That resulted in the fourth fastest time for Verstappen, enough to progress to the final segment of the session.
The same couldn’t be said for Mercedes as both its drivers were eliminated, followed by Esteban Ocon, Magnussen, and Tsunoda.
The final segment of Sprint Qualifying started slowly, with cars only emerging with four minutes remaining. The 10 remaining runners all chose a single-timed lap.
Hulkenberg was the first to complete his lap, a 1:28.476s. That quickly fell as Perez logged a 1:27.876s, with Verstappen going faster with a 1:27.641s.
Ricciardo slotted in third fastest as the chequered flag waved, with Lance Stroll only fourth and Alonso fifth, though others were still on laps.
Norris could only manage sixth best as he flashed across the line seconds before Leclerc rose to second.
Sainz could only manage fifth in the second Ferrari while Piastri ended up sixth in the wash up, Norris ninth as McLaren struggled to find the pace on the soft tyres it had enjoyed on the mediums earlier.
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