Miami (AFP) – Mercedes’ championship-leading teenager Kimi Antonelli stormed to pole position on Saturday for the Miami Grand Prix, resisting a late charge by four-time champion Max Verstappen in a tense qualifying session. The 19-year-old Italian, the youngest title race leader in F1 history, produced a fastest lap of one minute 27.798 seconds to top the times ahead of Red Bull’s Verstappen, with Charles Leclerc third quickest in his Ferrari. World champion Lando Norris, who won the sprint race earlier in the day, will start his McLaren from fourth in Sunday’s grid.
It was Antonelli’s third pole and his third in consecutive races, a feat that draws him alongside great former champions Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher in the record books. His Mercedes team-mate George Russell was fifth ahead of seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton in the second Ferrari and Oscar Piastri, who was seventh in the second McLaren. Alpine’s Franco Colapinto was eighth ahead of Isack Hadjar in the second Red Bull and the second Alpine of Pierre Gasly.
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“It has been an amazing day for me to be on pole again,” said Antonelli. “It was obviously a difficult sprint for me earlier, but I am super happy with this recovery. I got a little too excited in that last lap in Q3, but my first lap was good enough. I was so stressed because I was waiting for everyone to finish their laps, but it was good enough and now, hopefully, I will have a magic start tomorrow.”
Antonelli’s performance lit up the day as F1 returned with a bang after an enforced five-week hiatus due to the conflict in the Middle East, several teams exploiting upgrade packages on their cars. “For me to be on the front row is way better than I expected,” said Verstappen, who was close to his best in his heavily revised Red Bull. “Let’s hope for a good start –- I’ve not had many of them this year. The team has worked flat out for the past few weeks to make me more comfortable in this car.”
Added Leclerc: “I was right on the limit. But we were just not fast enough today. We brought a significant package here, which helped us, but we still need to improve, although P3 is a good position to start.”
The session began in sweltering heat and a swirling wind as Valtteri Bottas led out in his Cadillac ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez. It took time for the lap times to tumble before the leading contenders clocked fast laps, with Norris and Verstappen setting the pace along with Antonelli and the two Ferraris.
Verstappen grumbled that his tyres “have no grip” as he was outpaced by both Ferraris, with Hamilton top in 1:28.477 until Antonelli took over in 1:28.352, with Russell slotting in third with an identical time to Hamilton. Ferrari had clearly improved their set-up following the earlier sprint race won convincingly by Norris in a McLaren 1-2 ahead of Piastri. Like the Italian team, Mercedes also seemed to be quicker, and Antonelli improved to 1:28.289 before, in a final flurry, Verstappen took command in 1:28.116 to finish Q2 ahead of Antonelli, Leclerc, Piastri and Hamilton. Norris improved to seventh.
Piastri and Norris set the pace in Q3 before Verstappen and Leclerc outdid them, and Antonelli, with a sizzling lap in 1:27.798, secured provisional pole after the first runs, three-tenths clear of Leclerc’s Ferrari. The top five were separated by just hundredths of a second, with Hamilton sixth, 0.578 off the Italian’s pace as they paused before the drama of the late final runs.
© 2024 AFP
