The Friday in F1 Miami GP threw a surprise after Andrea Kimi Antonelli took sprint pole as McLaren kept itself in the hunt despite stiff challenge.
After Lewis Hamilton surprised everyone securing sprint pole in China, Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli did so in F1 Miami GP in a good show. He looked on pace throughout the session and strung a lap when it mattered to go quickest when neither of the McLaren drivers could beat him.
Both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris completed their laps after Antonelli and fell short marginally against the Italian, who put his name in the record books after becoming the youngest pole-sitter – whether in sprint and or main qualifying. It will be now about getting the result on Saturday.
His teammate George Russell went for a different strategy and could only manage fifth. Despite showing good pace, the Brit stated that he wasn’t 100% in sprint qualifying. Both Piastri and Norris feel confident, as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen said he did all he could to finish fourth.
The low-speed sections cost him time and he could only manage what he did. He survived a post-session investigation, as teammate Yuki Tsunoda was out in SQ1 after communication error. He left it a tad late and wasn’t able to complete a second lap after traffic in the first attempt.
Amid all the hoo-haa about the three F1 teams above, Ferrari were quite mostly, even though they ended up sixth and seventh. Charles Leclerc was disappointed with the result and thought it was the maximum they could do, while Lewis Hamilton felt a bit better personally, but not for the team.
Antonelli: “I was able to improve lap by lap and find that consistency, and that lap came all together. I’m super, super happy with that, and now we will enjoy this moment a little bit more, but as well I want to focus on tomorrow because I really want to try and repeat myself. It definitely was really nice, and also to find him in the garage after Qualifying. I’m super happy to share this moment with him. He’s so important to me as well and he’s like a rock, I know I can always rely on him. Really happy to share this moment with him. I would like to share it with my mum and my sister as well, but hopefully next time. We did quite a long run in FP1 to try and gather as [much] information as possible. Of course we don’t really know the pace of the others, but I guess we will see tomorrow during the [Sprint]. And then about Qualifying, the track is going to keep evolving so it’s going to be important to be on top of it and try to repeat ourselves.”
Piastri: “It wasn’t the best lap ever… I had a lock-up into the last corner, which I think was probably where pole went away, but P2 is still a good result. We can still fight from there in the Sprint tomorrow, so all in all, I’m pretty happy. Yeah, definitely. I think we’ve got a bit more pace to unlock, hopefully. I’m feeling positive still. We’ll try and make up a spot tomorrow in the Sprint before we get stuck into where the big points are.”
Norris: “Good. A close, close Qualifying. It felt good. I’m happy just to get a good lap in there. It was close, so not much more I could ask for. A lot of good memories here, but at the same time, you forget about it – it doesn’t matter, it’s in the past. “I’m concentrating on this weekend and today’s performance, which I think was in a good ballpark. Obviously not good enough, but it shows how close it is, it shows how quick the Mercedes [cars] are, and both of us are behind [Antonelli]. A bit of a job to do for the Sprint race tomorrow, but close enough that we can still try and aim for a pole [in Qualifying].”
Verstappen: “I think what we also did in Q3 was also good, the tyres are holding on quite well but unfortunately, already from FP1, I’m just struggling with a lot of understeer in the car and around here with all the low speed corners you just lose quite a bit of lap time. I think you can see in the first sector we are quite competitive because that is where the high speed corners are, but as soon as you get to the low speed [corners] we lack quite a bit of grip. But P4 is alright. Of course it is not where I want to be but you have to be a bit realistic with the limitations that we have at the moment and I think it was still quite close. Honestly it is very difficult to say [if we can fight the front runners] in the Sprint weekend as there is no real proper data in long runs because you don’t know what others are doing with fuel loads and stuff. But just going off my own feeling, balance-wise with the car, I think it will be tough with the heat. Like I said, we know our limitations, so we have to try and make the best of it.”
Russell: “Firstly massive congrats to Kimi – really pleased to see [that]. He did an amazing job, he’s been really quick all day, really impressive. I’ve been struggling a little bit today, a little bit off the pace, not been so comfortable and we just wanted to go on the early side because ultimately I didn’t quite have that confidence, and we thought maybe if there’s a red or a yellow [flag] at the end of the session it would come our way. But P5 today, not great – more to improve, but amazing for Kimi and the team. These Sprint race weekends are challenging. If you get in the groove early, you can just build from there, and just all day today I haven’t quite felt it in the car, especially the tyres sliding around a bit. But as I said, it’s Sprint [Qualifying] today – obviously disappointing not to be further up the grid, but really happy for Kimi.”
Leclerc: “Bad. The lap was good, but the pace is just not at all there for now, so it is a bit annoying. It’s every corner really, it’s not like we are particularly weak in one type of corner. Yes, the slow speed seems to be a bit more of our weakness, but it changes from one weekend to the other, so it is just not great.”
Tsunoda: “Some intelligent car just came out from [the] pit and [I had to] abort my lap. A lot of cars cost my lap quite a lot. First lap… yeah, to be honest that’s it. In the last corner I had quite a lock-up, but to be honest the lap was pretty gone already from Turn 1 because of the car at pit exit. Just [wasn’t] able to do a proper lap at all, so that’s it. I was [aware how tight it was] but I just… what do you want me to do, because there’s a car in front. Communication is pretty poor as well and, just in general, I didn’t [do] a proper Qualifying. It’s pretty far back. I’ll try my best obviously, anything can happen at this track. I keep positive and I’ll do my best.”
The Top 10 featured Williams’ Alexander Albon, Visa Cash App RB’s Isack Hadjar and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso. The Thai felt they lost some pace from FP1 but he was happy to be best of the rest. The Frenchman did not enjoy the day, but was pleased to make it through to SQ3 still.
The Spaniard, meanwhile, was pleasantly surprised considering that Aston Martin hasn’t been good on Saturdays. In terms of their teammates, Carlos Sainz rued pushing too hard on his SQ2 lap which resulted in a mistake, while Liam Lawson felt all of sprint qualifying was messy.
Lance Stroll thought SQ2 was possible if not for impeding from Verstappen, which was not even investigated. Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg was happy to end up 11th after an average FP1, while Gabriel Bortoleto thought SQ2 was possible if not for a mistake on his final attempt.
Haas’ Esteban Ocon was happy to make it SQ2 but agreed that SQ3 was not possible. His teammate Oliver Bearman had the same issue as Tsunoda, with Alpine’s Jack Doohan suffered the same fate. The Australian was visibly angry, as Pierre Gasly felt his prep lap wasn’t good enough.
Alonso: “It’s a bit of a surprise to qualify where we did because the car is still struggling with balance and it’s not always consistent – but all in all, a good day. This is the first time we have made it into SQ3 this season so hopefully we can keep up that momentum. Only the top eight cars will score points tomorrow, but we will try our best.”
Hadjar: “It was a stressful Sprint Qualifying today. We didn’t have a good first run in SQ1 as I made a mistake in the last corner, and that put pressure on us to finalize the last push lap. After that, I was happy with the lap I made in SQ2, which allowed us to go to SQ3. We were really tight on time, and it wasn’t an ideal position to start the lap as I was only a couple of seconds behind Charles, but I knew we had to make the most out of it. Tomorrow, the start of the race will be crucial, so we’ll try to have a good shot at it, to then try and fight for points.”
Hulkenberg: “I’m happy we maximised our potential in Sprint Qualifying today. Given the challenging FP1 we had this morning, P11 feels even more rewarding. I suffered from a flat spot in my first stint on the medium tyres, leaving me only the soft tyres for another four laps – obviously, that wasn’t the best preparation for qualifying. It’s definitely a positive start for the team as we enter the Miami race weekend: now our aim will be to retain the competitiveness we have shown today into tomorrow’s Sprint race.”
Sainz: “In hindsight, it was not the right call to risk getting into SQ3 with only one lap. I made a mistake locking up into Turn 11 and that was it, there was no time left on the clock. Up to that point, the lap was good but I’m obviously not happy because we were fast today. It’s going to be a tough Sprint tomorrow. I’ll try my best to recover and go at it again in the afternoon in Qualifying. We seem to have good pace this weekend, so I look forward to getting back on track.”
Ocon: “I think there was a little bit more in the car, especially as in the last corner I went in a bit deep, so I need to see how much we lost but I don’t think it was enough to go through. Overall, I think it was quite positive because we look pretty strong, but obviously it’s not quite enough for where we want to be for a Sprint, as it’s the top eight scoring points, but we’re giving it our best tomorrow. It was a good preparation ahead of qualifying tomorrow as well. I think the car feels better than in Jeddah which is a good thing, from the simulator work we did and also some of the running we’ve done here, it was quite clear to us, but we still have more to work on.”
Doohan: “It all comes down to the last flying lap and I think that the feeling was good, but I just ended up getting blocked on my way out the pit lane which was a mess up, because it was from the other car. And then I wasn’t able to do another flying lap. That’s why they make the length of Quali that long, to do two laps and improve quite a lot on the second lap. I ended up being the last car out there and didn’t get a chance to do a second timed lap. I think the first lap was really, really messy – just trying a few things different from practice. But still I think it wasn’t too bad, there was a lot more time in the car for the second lap. I guess we’ll never know now. [I’ve] just [got to] try to move forward as much as possible. We have another shot at Quali tomorrow afternoon, Sprint will be a tough one, just learn as much as we can from that for the main race and then focus on Quali.”
Here’s how F1 Miami GP sprint qualifying panned out
