At just 18 years of age, Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli scored his maiden ‘pole position’ in F1 on Friday at the Miami GP, as he secured the top spot in Sprint Qualifying by just four hundredths of a second from championship leader Oscar Piastri.
Antonelli “did not see” Sprint pole coming
Although both he and team-mate George Russell had shown encouraging pace in free practice earlier in the day, Antonelli admitted that his first ever pole position – in any qualifying format – came as a bit of a surprise. He beat both McLarens, which looked clear favourites judging by the sole practice session, by the slenderest of margins, and believes there was even more that he could’ve extracted:
“I did not see that coming, to be honest,” Antonelli told Sky Sports. “I felt the lap was good, and I was happy with it and how it came together.
“There were still a few bits where I could have done a bit better, but [I’m] still super happy with how I put all the sectors together.
“Now I will enjoy this moment a little bit more, but at the same time I’m going to try to focus on tomorrow because it will be good to repeat ourselves.”
How the two-week break between races helped him to improve
The Mercedes driver explained how the two-week gap between the Saudi Arabian GP and the F1 Miami GP helped him “process” the learnings from the triple header and apply it to his on-track approach for this weekend, along with some well deserved rest following the hectic start to the season, which saw the first five races run in six weeks:
“Every week and I’m learning massively. And I think the last week having a break really helped me to gather all the information and process them all.
“And also recharging a little bit the batteries, it was really good.
“I mean, the whole qualifying, I felt I was able to make a step, lap by lap. And especially, [because] I’m much more aware of how to do a consistent warm up, how to extract more of the tire.
“But, of course, there’s still a lot to improve. But we’re on the good way.”
Understading car set-up key for improved form
Although he believes there’s still room for more improvements, Antonelli is pleased that he now has a much better feeling in the W16 compared to the start of the season, and explained how that is also allowing him to provide better feedback and push the team forward throughout the weekend:
“For sure, there’s always room for improvement,” he said. “But every weekend I’m more confident with the car.
“You know, I am able to play with the car more and explore more the limit. But at the same time, understanding much better the set-up of the car.
“I can give a much better feedback, much more detail, and that’s allowed the team as well to improve the car during the weekend.”
Wolff shrugs off “just Sprint pole” comments
Mercedes team principal and CEO Toto Wolff didn’t hold back his praise of Antonelli, as he stated that the fact it was “just” a Sprint pole at the F1 Miami GP doesn’t take away from the achievement of being quickest of all in a competitive qualifying session – and hopes the Italian will continue to deliver “fun and happiness” to the team in years to come:
“He’s never driven here. He’s a young man, and hopefully he will bring us a lot of fun and happiness in the future.
“It’s about the trajectory,” Wolff told Sky. “It’s not whether it’s only a pole in a sprint race, or pole in [main qualifying] in the future, he’s done it, he’s been quickest.”
Russell’s unusual run plan in SQ3 a result of a lack of confidence
As for the other Mercedes of George Russell, things weren’t as plain sailing on Friday in Miami. The Briton only managed fifth on the grid, after being one of just two drivers – along with Max Verstappen – to opt for an early run in SQ3.
That meant he wouldn’t run the risk of being affected by red flags in the final stages, but at the same time made him lose the best of the track conditions right at the end of the session, when his team-mate stormed to pole position.
Speaking after the session, Russell admitted he had been “struggling” and “off the pace” in the session, which somewhat forced them to take a different approach in the hope of securing a better result:
“Firstly, massive congrats to Kimi [Antonelli], I’m really pleased to see,” Russell said. “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, [I’ve] not been so comfortable.
“We just wanted to go on the early side [in SQ3] because ultimately I just didn’t have that confidence,” he admitted. “And we thought maybe if there’s a yellow or a red [flag] at the end of the session, it’d come our way.
“P5 today, not great, more to improve, but amazing for Kimi and the team.”
“Challenging” Sprint and tyre issues weekends behind Friday struggles
When asked to expand on some of his struggles, Russell mentioned the difficulty of Sprint weekends with the lack of practice sessions, and how the lack of confidence on the behaviour of the tyres made for a tricky session on his side of the Mercedes garage:
“These Sprint race weekends are challenging,” he said. “If you get in the groove early, you can just build from there. And just all day today, I just haven’t quite felt it in the car, especially the tyres, sliding around a bit.
“But as I said, it’s a Sprint race [tomorrow]. I’m obviously disappointed to not be further up the grid, but I’m really happy for Kimi.”
