Miami Gardens (USA), May 3: Kimi Antonelli helped Mercedes rebound from a disappointing showing in the Saturday sprint race at the Miami Grand Prix by winning the pole in qualifying just a few hours later.
It’s the third consecutive pole for the current Formula One championship leader, who blocked Max Verstappen from taking the top starting spot at Miami International Autodrome for a third straight year.
Mercedes has dominated the competition this season, with George Russell winning from the pole in the season-opening race, then Antonelli winning from the pole in the two grands prix that followed. F1 then had a five-week break when a pair of races in the Middle East were canceled because of the war in Iran.
All teams made upgrades to their cars during the break, but after Russell was fourth and Antonelli sixth in Saturday’s sprint race, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff acknowledged “we are a little out of sync with our upgrades compared to other teams.”
Antonelli recovered by qualifying and turned a lap at 1 minute, 28.653 seconds to beat Verstappen of Red Bull for the pole.
Verstappen earned his best starting spot of the season as Red Bull has seemingly improved with its car upgrades. The four-time world champion – a two-time winner at Miami – had qualified sixth in Australia, eighth in China and 11th in Japan.
His best finish of the season so far was sixth in the Australia season opener, and the Dutchman has been so frustrated with the current car regulations that he’s talked about potentially leaving F1.
He was all smiles after his qualifying result.
Charles Leclerc, who was third in the sprint race, qualified third for Ferrari. Lando Norris, the reigning world champion and defending Miami Grand Prix winner, qualified fourth for McLaren after winning the sprint race from the pole.
Russell was fifth, Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari was sixth and Oscar Piastri of McLaren was seventh after finishing second in the sprint race.
Both of the Cadillac drivers failed to advance out of the first round in the team’s first race in the United States. Despite major upgrades made to the new car during the five-week break between the Japanese Grand Prix on March 29 and Miami, Valtteri Bottas qualified 20th and Sergio Perez was 21st.
Only Gabriel Bortoleto qualified below them, last in 22nd, because of an issue that caused his Audi to catch fire. (AP)
