Kimi Antonelli becomes the youngest driver to start on pole in any race in F1 as the Mercedes rookie puts his Mercedes on Sprint Pole, beating both the McLarens.
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Fresh on the heels of the 10 year contract extension for the Miami GP, the on track action began. The early pace setter was Redbull’s Max Verstappen, who put in a great flying lap, however Mercedes Antonelli quickly took the top spot ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris.
As usual the Sprint Qualifying follows the same format of Grand Prix Qualifying, with the slowest five of SQ1 and SQ2 with the final 10 driver going for the pole.
Redbull Trouble
As the chequered flag dropped for SQ1, it was clear that we had our first surprise as the Redbull of Yuki Tsunoda failed to cross the line in time and was sent tumbling out of SQ1 and will start in 18th. The Japanese driver was joined by Liam Lawson, Lance Stroll, Jack Doohan, Gabriel Bortoleto and Ollie Bearman.
Jack Doohan made his feelings extremely clear on the Alpine Radio, blaming the team of knocking him out of SQ1, thinking that the team did not give him the ideal opportunity to make it through to SQ2.
SQ2 – Sainz Sorrow
The remaining 15 drivers headed back out on track, who can make the top 10? George Russell was not impressed with the Mercedes and the early choice of tire.
McLaren pair Piastri and Norris shared the ealry front row, with Piastri 0.183 seconds of Lando Norris.
Pierre Gasly was lucky not to write off his Alpine with a heavy hit against the wall, he would cross the line in 8th.
Carlos Sainz was the next surprise as the Williams could only manage 15th, the Spanish driver would have a moment at turn 11 ending any hope of making it into the top ten shoot out.
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The slowest 5 in SQ3 were Carlos Sainz, Liam Lawson, Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg.
Fight For (Sprint) Pole
All but 2 drivers waited till the final couple of minutes to put in a time for SR pole, a one shot for most drivers to attempt the take the lead from McLaren.
Mercedes driver of George Russell, put in an early lap, with a 1:26.791 however it was Kimi Antonelli who would steal the headlines from the dominant McLarens, taking Sprint Pole by 0.045 seconds from Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, the second Mercedes could only manage 5th as George will rues the decision to put in his SQ3 lap as early as he did.
We are set up for a great sprint. Can Kimi Antonelli convert the Sprint Pole into Sprint Win?
Sprint Race Grid at the Miami GP
