Antonelli storms to Miami Grand Prix pole ahead of Verstappen and Leclerc

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.

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 teammate 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.

Following a shake-up in the order in the Sprint – which saw McLaren and Ferrari’s upgrades come alive to build an advantage over Mercedes – it was time for Saturday’s tough-to-predict Qualifying session. Norris looked to be the driver to beat after converting Sprint pole to victory, but who would snatch the top spot this time?

While Cadillac pair Bottas and Perez were two of the first to arrive on track following the green light, it was clear that Audi’s Bortoleto wasn’t heading out anytime soon as he was shown stranded in the garage after being disqualified from the Sprint result due to a technical breach.

Despite the sunny conditions, some drivers reported a tailwind as they began to set the first flying laps of the hour, with the majority opting for used soft compound tyres. Verstappen set an early benchmark of 1m 29.099s, with Norris close behind on the timesheets with a 0.084s deficit to the Red Bull driver.

After receiving a five-second time penalty that demoted him to P6 earlier in the day, Antonelli was the next to slot into P2, leaving Verstappen’s effort untroubled. However, there was evidently still plenty of improvement to find as his fast lap was over a second slower than Norris’ Sprint Qualifying time.

Lawson was the first to bolt on fresh red-walled tyres and temporarily shot up to sixth place as a result, while his Racing Bulls teammate lingered in the elimination zone with just five minutes remaining.

Russell – having been reminded how important his final lap was as he sat in P12 – escaped danger as he improved to P7 but the other Mercedes of Antonelli clocked an eye-catching time that blew Verstappen’s attempt out of the water by over four-tenths.

Meanwhile, it was a shaky few moments for Piastri as he rapidly dropped down the order while those around him continued to cut down their times. Ultimately, Lindblad was unable to find enough to knock him out of Q1 and the Aussie narrowly squeezed through in P16.

The Aston Martin duo of Alonso and Stroll wound up 18th and 19th respectively, ahead of Cadillac’s Bottas and Perez. Rounding out the pack was Bortoleto who managed to complete a timed lap before his brakes caught fire, bringing a dramatic end to Q1.

Following a short delay to recover the stricken Audi, Red Bull were the first to send their drivers out as Q2 got underway at the Miami International Autodrome. Although it looked like he was building on his strong Q1 showing, Verstappen complained about his tyres feeling “terrible” and he was soon displaced by Hamilton and Leclerc.

While Norris suffered a scary snap that made him abandon the lap, his pole position rival Antonelli surged to P1, again on a set of soft tyres. In a strong segment for the Silver Arrows, Russell then matched Hamilton’s effort to put the former teammates in P3 and P2 respectively.

Further down the order, Colapinto and Gasly consistently demonstrated that Alpine’s Sprint pace was not a one-off as they comfortably settled in the top-10, with Norris splitting the pair on his first full flying lap.

Everyone returned to the pits to reset for a high stakes end to Q2 as the windy conditions became more of an issue for the drivers – Russell was told that there were gusts of up to 25kph at Turn 11, while Norris mistook the wind for a deployment problem.

Back at the front, Antonelli found marginally more time before Verstappen reclaimed the top spot with a 1m 28.116s and Leclerc tucked into P3. Like his McLaren team mate earlier in the hour, Norris needed to deliver from an underwhelming ninth place, and he managed to gain a couple of positions to end Q2 in P7.

Hulkenberg lost out on a spot in Q3 to the Alpine duo, ending the session in P11 for Audi. Lawson was next in 12th place and led Bearman while the second Haas of Ocon took P15, with Williams’ Sainz marginally ahead in P14. The Spaniard’s team mate was heard exclaiming “what a joke” as he missed out on Q3 once again, leaving him to start the Miami Grand Prix from P16.

With the top-10 decided, it was a slow start to Q3 as everyone was eager to maximise the track evolution and set their best laps as late as possible.

McLaren confirmed that Norris was impacted by an issue with the boost in Q2 but it was clearly no longer a problem when it really mattered as the Briton zoomed to the top of the times early on. Verstappen had a response ready to go as he edged out the McLaren by 0.002s before Leclerc went even quicker.

However, their efforts were outshone by Antonelli as he set a provisional pole time of 1m 27.798s, the fastest lap of the weekend so far. With the clock ticking down, it would take a colossal attempt from one of his competitors to beat the Italian.

Even though Antonelli didn’t improve on his final lap, no one else could match his earlier time and he secured his third consecutive Grand Prix pole position, beating Verstappen by 0.166s. Leclerc was displaced by the Dutchman at the last second and will line up third on the grid alongside Norris.

Russell took fifth for Mercedes ahead of Hamilton, while Piastri had to settle for seventh, just over seven-tenths off Antonelli’s pace. Alpine, meanwhile, enjoyed another strong Qualifying session as Colapinto and Gasly claimed P8 and P10 respectively, with Hadjar splitting the two.

"It’s been an amazing day, to be on pole again," said Antonelli. "It was obviously a difficult start of the day with the Sprint, where it didn’t go our way, but I’m super happy with the recovery. It was a good Qualifying. I got a little bit too excited on the last lap of Q3 but the first lap was good enough, and I’m really happy with that."