Antonelli continues pole streak as he beats Verstappen to Miami pole
Italian Kimi Antonelli secured his third consecutive pole position as Mercedes slowly found back their pace after being outclassed so far this weekend. Max Verstappen proved a very happy second fastest as well, confirming he felt more comfortable than before the break. Charles Leclerc will start from third for Ferrari.
Following the sprint race earlier on Saturday it was time for old school qualifying in Miami with as usual a large queue of cars immediately getting to the track as soon as the light went green at the end of the pitlane. The big guns waited a bit longer.
As as as it was time for competitive lap times, the Red Bulls emerged ahead with Verstappen taking the top stop which no competitor could quickly match. Antonelli slotted into second with his first lap followed by Norris and then Bearman in the Haas. The Ferrari duo also slotted in between the Red Bulls later, and when Hulkenberg did so too, Hadjar found himself in 8th.
Piastri didn't get more than 11th and Russell only 12th, leading to the both of them starting a new flying lap 4 minutes from the end, slightly ahead of traffic that we usually see at the end of a session. Russell did what was needed and moved up into 7th, but moments later Antonelli proved the Mercedes had more as the Italian beat Verstappen's time by nearly half a second to take first place.
Oscar Piastri notably didn't manage to improve his lap and braced for a couple of tense minutes as he gradually dropped down the pecking order. The last person of risk was Lindblad, but he missed out by by a couple of thousandths, saving Piastri to move through into Q2.
Meanwhile Bortoleto also eventually managed to make it out on the track after stressful work by his mechanics to get his car ready. They did it, and Bortoleto managed to make a lap, but seeing him stop out on track on his in-lap with the left rear brake on fire won't have been a pleasing sight to finish the day.
In Q2 it became clear Mercedes was slowly finding back its form with Antonelli quickly emerging up in front after Verstappen had set the early pace. The competition however was extremely close with Hamilton, Russell and Leclerc on the Italian's heels with less than 2 tenths behind.
Piastri this time has a solid first lap and sat 5th at the session's halfway point, just ahead of Verstappen and Hadjar. By contrast it was Norris at McLaren who was struggling, first having to correct some oversteer in a high speed corner, and on his second attempt struggling with conditions as his engineer blamed a strong headwind at the back straight for Norris's impression of "no deployment" at Turn 15.
Antonelli further raised the bar when he shaved another tenth off his previous lap with just 1 minutes remaining in the session. As Russell had a very poor first sector and therefore couldn't improve, Verstappen returned to the top spot with a 1:28.116, nearly 2 tenths quicker than Antonelli's effort.
Norris also had another go and moved up into 7th. Both Alpines also made it through, eliminating Hulkenberg, Lawson, Bearman, Sainz, Lindblad and Albon.
The final shootout of qualifying kicked off with Max Verstappen but soon after Charles Leclerc was on provisional pole. The gap was extremely small while Norris ended up also only a few hundredths slower than Verstappen. Hamilton was two tenths behind with Piastri another 2 tenths further back.
Then came the Mercedes and it was Antonelli who took the first spot, beating everybody by 3 tenths. George Russell followed his younger teammate on track and ended up just 5th, 4 tenths slower.
After all cars returned to the pits and switched to a new set of soft tyres, Mercedes were this time out first, followed by Piastri and Norris.
Antonelli quickly ruined his second lap and was relegated to be an onlooker. Russell had personal bests in sector one and two but then faded at the end of the lap. Leclerc, Norris, Piastri and Hamilton all failed to improve as well, and it was only Verstappen in the end who managed to change anything, securing second on the grid to join Antonelli for his 3rd consecutive pole position.
