Mercedes will "support him to maintain this trajectory," claims Wolff as he reflects on Antonelli's pole lap

Having claimed his maiden F1 pole position in the sprint qualifying at the Miami Grand Prix, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has stressed that the Brackley-based squad will support the Italian sensation "to maintain this trajectory."

Having shown promising pace in the sole practice session, Andrea Kimi Antonelli continued to impress in qualifying. The 18-year-old looked quick on the mediums in SQ1 and SQ2 before he he went on to beat McLaren's Oscar Piastri, the championship leader, by 0.045 seconds.

Lando Norris appeared to be the quicker McLaren driver in qualifying, but he ended up third, a place behind his team mate Piastri. Reigning champion Max Verstappen elected to complete two laps in the final stage of the sprint qualifying, and he was right as his second lap was the quicker one, but it was still only enough for P4 on the grid.

With his stellar last push lap, the Bologna-born driver sealed his first ever P1 grid slot in style, at a track he has never driven before, in an incredible history-making effort.

As his team-mate George Russell looked incredibly quick in practice, most expected the Briton to be the one to push the McLarens for the pole position. However, Russell had to settle for fifth after opting to set his lap time earlier than the rest in SQ3 before the track had fully evolved.

Reflecting on Antonelli's sensational maiden F1 pole position of any kind, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has highlighted the progress the Bologna-born driver has made since the start of the season.

"Congratulations to Kimi on his first Sprint pole position in F1. It was a great lap in a tight session and will be a moment he will never forget. Whilst it is good that we will start tomorrow’s Sprint from P1, the most important thing is the progress we are seeing from Kimi.

"He continues to learn and get better every weekend. He has now topped a session, even if it came in Sprint Qualifying. It is another important milestone in his development, and we will continue to support him to maintain this trajectory.

As for Russell, the Austrian noted: "On the other side of the garage, George was slightly unlucky. He hasn’t felt as comfortable in the car as Kimi today and that showed throughout FP1 and Sprint Qualifying. We decided to go on the early side in SQ3 to make sure he got a clean lap. That was the right decision but probably cost us a little bit of track evolution.

"He put together a decent effort but was just on the wrong side of the pack at the front. He will be determined to fight back from P5 tomorrow, before we focus on the most important session of the weekend so far in Qualifying."

Commenting on Mercedes' performance on the opening day in Miami, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has revealed that Russell struggled to get the tyres to "bite."

"It's great to see Kimi take a well deserved Sprint pole! He has looked strong from the first lap of FP1 but clearly saved the best until last. To become the youngest driver to take a pole position in any format in F1 is a special moment and one he deserves to savour right now. Our attention will swiftly turn to tomorrow though with the Sprint and then Qualifying for the Grand Prix later in the afternoon.

"George started Sprint Qualifying well but as it progressed, he was struggling to get the tyres to bite and is understandably disappointed with P5. We probably went too early on the final run with him but that was to get a bit of flexibility if the lap didn't go to plan. We will review that ahead of Qualifying tomorrow.

"We spent a long time focusing on long run work this morning, so didn't get a look at the Soft tyre until SQ3. That long run programme was aimed at understanding why our long run pace was not as competitive as we hoped for in Jeddah.

"We know that we have work to do to improve the car in that area, and we don't expect a quick fix, but it will be interesting to see how we get on tomorrow. The Sprint always provides some useful learning and we'll be doing whatever we can to get a strong result with both cars."