Antonelli storms to Miami Grand Prix pole ahead of Verstappen and Leclerc
Kimi Antonelli secured his third consecutive pole position in style for the Miami Grand Prix.
Kimi Antonelli has clinched pole position for the Miami Grand Prix in style, setting a magnificent lap to edge out Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to the honour.
The Mercedes driver was consistently towards the top of the times throughout Qualifying and, although he couldn’t improve on his final lap, an earlier effort proved to be unbeatable as he ended the session on a time of 1m 27.798s.
Verstappen looked close to pipping Antonelli to pole position at the last second with rapid sectors at the Miami International Autodrome, but he ultimately lost out by just over a tenth and will line up on the front row ahead of Leclerc.
Lando Norris recovered from a boost issue to take P4 on the grid, with both he and his McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri – who placed seventh – coming close to being knocked out early on. George Russell secured a frustrating P5 ahead of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, with Franco Colapinto, Isack Hadjar and Pierre Gasly rounding out the top-10.
Qualifying Results available on formula1.com
Nico Hulkenberg bounced back from his DNS in the Sprint to qualify P11 for Audi ahead of Liam Lawson and Ollie Bearman, who outperformed his Haas team mate as Esteban Ocon claimed P15.
Carlos Sainz was sandwiched between the Haas duo in P14 as both Williams drivers progressed to Q2, although Alex Albon was heard expressing his frustration over the radio as his effort was only good enough for P16.
Arvid Lindblad was the driver who came closest to scraping into Q2, which would have forced a shock exit for Piastri who set all of his Q1 laps on used tyres, but the Racing Bulls rookie couldn’t quite find enough improvement.
He qualified ahead of the Aston Martin pair of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll while Cadillac, in their first home event, ended up in P20 and P21 with Valtteri Bottas leading Sergio Perez. Last up was Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto, who made it onto the track with just a few minutes to go and failed to match his competitors’ pace before a brake fire forced him to abandon the car.