Watch: Charles Leclerc walks up to Max Verstappen to congratulate him on his first kid

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc warmly greeted and congratulated Red Bull driver and his rival, Max Verstappen, on becoming a father. The Dutch driver missed the Thursday media duties to be present at the birth of his first child with his girlfriend Kelly Piquet in Monaco.

Verstappen arrived in Miami on Thursday night and went straight into racing action as it was a Sprint weekend. The four-time F1 world champion and his partner had announced the pregnancy at the end of last year but had kept the date of the birth of their child away from the public eye.

After Max Verstappen shared the first images of his newborn daughter named Lily with Piquet on his social media, the 27-year-old received a flurry of good wishes and messages.

In a video posted by Red Bull on Instagram ahead of the FP1 session, Charles Leclerc walked up to his rival and congratulated him, and sweetly asked the latter:

"Congratulations. Everything is well?"

Verstappen, who was beaming with his smile, replied:

"Everything is beautiful."

In his first interview as a father on ESPN, Max Verstappen reflected on the life-changing moment and said:

"Luckily, I got to spend a few days with them when she was born. You never really know what to expect, but it's been very enjoyable, and for sure very special.

"Sleep has been good so far for me. Knowing I would be late arriving for Miami, we were in the middle of the time zones, so already I have slept eight hours. It's been good."

On the track, the Red Bull driver was just a couple of tenths behind Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli, who took pole position in the Sprint Qualifying, and finished P4 for the Sprint.

Max Verstappen analyzes his P4 in the Sprint Qualifying

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen stated that he was satisfied with his laps in the SQ3 despite tackling understeer in the RB21 at the Miami Grand Prix.

Speaking with Sky Sports, the Dutchman analyzed his lap and said:

"I think what we also did in Q3 was good, the tires were holding on quite well. But unfortunately, already from FP1, just struggling with a lot of understeer in the car, and around here with all these low-speed corners, you just lose quite a bit of lap time. P4 is alright.

"I mean, it's of course not where I want to be, but you also need to be realistic with the limitations that we have at the moment, and I think it was still quite close," Verstappen said.

Max Verstappen had looked hooked on and was not complaining as frequently about his car troubles in Miami as he had done in the previous races.