Can Mercedes pose a threat to McLaren after Antonelli’s magical Miami lap?

Kimi Antonelli delivered a magical lap to take a shock pole position in Sprint Qualifying at the Miami Grand Prix, as frontrunners McLaren were just edged out.

As ever with Sprint weekends, there was just one practice session, which makes it difficult to predict how the next couple of days will unfold – but some sort of pecking order has started to emerge for the races in the Sunshine State.

Antonelli was "over the moon" after becoming the youngest polesitter across any Formula 1 format in the history of the sport, the Italian combining a mighty final lap under pressure with a lock-up from rival Oscar Piastri to snatch the best starting spot on the grid for the Sprint.

The Italian, who incidentally is 22 years younger than the last Sprint polesitter Lewis Hamilton who he replaced at Mercedes, looked quick all day with the Silver Arrows gaining their edge with a straight-line speed advantage of around 0.1s over their rivals.

If Antonelli can stay ahead at the start, that trait could allow him to keep the chasing McLarens at bay – even if they are a smidge faster (data has them neck-and-neck on long run pace based on what we learned in first practice).

It's going to be tough, of course, but Hamilton showed in China how important P1 and free air can be, as he converted pole into a Sprint win, his first triumph in Ferrari colours. Antonelli will aim to do the same.

McLaren have been the ones to beat all season, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri making the most of their advantage to seize four Grand Prix wins in five.

They looked strong in the one and only practice of the weekend as Piastri set the pace – (the timesheets were skewed because several drivers including Norris failed to complete a soft tyre Qualifying simulation because of the red flag caused by Ollie Bearman who slid into the wall).

And Piastri was set to take pole in the Sprint until a small lock-up at the final corner cost him and left him P2, a fraction ahead of Norris – who had one of his cleanest qualifyings in recent times to close out the top-three.

They have the edge on Mercedes in the corners but lose out on the straights, which leaves them in an overall minor deficit. That said, a good start for either could catapult them into the lead - and they would likely then have the pace to win.

Max Verstappen arrived in the Miami paddock on Friday, having missed Thursday's media duties to spend time with his newborn baby girl Lily and hit the ground running as he tested the new floor Red Bull had brought over.

The low-speed corners that litter the Miami track proved to be Red Bull's nemesis, though, with Verstappen lacking "quite a bit of grip" as he battled understeer. P4, then, was a fine result – especially as he managed to get a second lap out of his soft tyres – and puts him right in the mix.

His teammate Yuki Tsunoda didn't have much luck as he was booted out of the first part of Sprint Qualifying. The Japanese racer had to abort his first run after encountering a car exiting the pit lane that cost him time and then miscommunication meant he didn't have enough time to cross the line at the end of the session to try a second lap.

Encouragingly for both drivers, their race pace looks decent as they are only 0.1s adrift of McLaren and Mercedes. It might not be enough to recover much in the Sprint but could be a factor on Sunday if they qualify better on Saturday.

There was an air of resignation from Charles Leclerc as he conceded Ferrari's performance in Sprint Qualifying "looks like this is our baseline for now" as "there wasn't much room for improvement" on his way to the sixth fastest time, 0.3s off the pace.

His teammate Hamilton agreed the team is not happy and "not quite where we want to be just yet" but he was definitely the more positive of the two drivers as the seven-time world champion highlighted "encouraging signs" after the car felt "more connected" in SQ1.

The Ferraris were second-strongest in the medium-speed corners according to our data but around 0.2s off in the low-speed and on the straights – and that left them fourth-best in the pecking, just over two tenths faster than Williams – who continued their fine form from Saudi to emerge as best of the rest.

Making progress in the Sprint will be tough, but they can use the session – as can all of their rivals – to learn more about the race pace before having the opportunity to tweak their cars ahead of Qualifying and the Grand Prix.