Championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli has achieved a third successive pole at the Miami Grand Prix, resisting the challenge from Max Verstappen.
Antonelli’s first effort in Q3 was enough to keep his rivals away, with Verstappen’s final effort taking him second ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
The qualifying session got underway at 4.00 P.M. local Miami time in hot conditions, with ambient temperatures of 34C and track temperatures well into the 50s.
Verstappen led the early running in Q1 ahead of Antonelli, Norris and the Ferraris, before Antonelli took command with a time of one minute, 28.653 seconds lap.
At the bottom of the order, the usual suspects Aston Martin and Cadillac soon proved out of touch with the rest of Formula 1’s midfield. There was also trouble for Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto, who after a delayed start with a power unit issues, leaving Gabriel on the side of the track. It was the second issue in as many sessions after teammate Nico Hulkenberg did not make the start of the sprint race.
With six elimination spots in Q1, that meant just one car would be drop out, with Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad taking P17 after the first runs. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was under threat as the McLaren driver used tyres for his final run. He then suffered from a poor first sector leaving him on the edge in P16.
Antonelli initially led Hamilton in Q2, with Norris now the McLaren driver finding himself in a spot of trouble. Norris aborted his first run after going off the track at Turn 6 but found enough time to take seventh, half a second up on the P10 cutoff.
As Verstappen went to the top with one minute, 28.116 seconds, both Alpines advanced to Q3 at the top of Formula 1’s midfield, with Franco Colapinto again ahead of Pierre Gasly as he was in sprint qualifying. It was the Alpine driver’s first Q3 appearance since Azerbaijan 2024.
Nico Hulkenberg was eliminated in P11 by a significant four-tenth margin, followed out by Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson. The four cars from Haas and Williams were also eliminated.
In the deciding top ten shootout Antonelli set the beach mark with a time of one minute, 27.798 seconds, the first lap that improved on Lando’s sprint pole. Thanks of a rapid first sector, that effort was three tenths up on Leclerc and Verstappen. They were followed by Norris and Russell, with just half a tenth separating positions two to five.
Antonelli was one of several drivers who was unable to improve on the second attempt, but his first Q3 run was good enough to claim his third successive Grand Prix pole. Verstappen came closest on his final Q3 flying lap to jump Leclerc into second, revealing the Red Bull’s progress in Miami after a troubled start to the season.
Behind Leclerc, sprint race winner Norris beat Russell to the second row in fourth and fifth respectively, with Hamilton sixth. Piastri was a subdued seventh in the second McLaren, while Colapinto grabbed his best-ever qualifying result in eight. Hadjar and Gasly rounded out the top ten.
What an amazing qualifying result from Kimi Antonelli. So much confidence in the Mercedes and this is his third consecutive pole position. It will be fascinating if the Miami Grand Prix will run as there’s a threat of thunderstorms on race day.
Miami Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:27.798
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford 1:27.964
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:28.143
4 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 1:28.183
5 George Russell Mercedes 1:28.197
6 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:28.319
7 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes 1:28.500
8 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes 1:28.762
9 Isack Hadjar Red Bull-Ford 1:28.789
10 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes 1:28.810
11 Nico Hulkenberg Audi 1:29.439
12 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Ford 1:29.499
13 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari 1:29.567
14 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes 1:29.568
15 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari 1:29.772
16 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes 1:29.946
17 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford 1:30.133
18 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda 1:31.098
19 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda 1:31.164
20 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari 1:31.629
21 Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari 1:31.967
22 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 1:33.737
Kimi Antonelli has clinched pole position for the Miami Grand Prix in style, setting a magnificent lap to edge out Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to the honour.
The Mercedes driver was consistently towards the top of the times throughout Qualifying and, although he couldn’t improve on his final lap, an earlier effort proved to be unbeatable as he ended the session on a time of 1m 27.798s.
Verstappen looked close to pipping Antonelli to pole position at the last second with rapid sectors at the Miami International Autodrome, but he ultimately lost out by just over a tenth and will line up on the front row ahead of Leclerc.
Lando Norris recovered from a boost issue to take P4 on the grid, with both he and his McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri – who placed seventh – coming close to being knocked out early on. George Russell secured a frustrating P5 ahead of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, with Franco Colapinto, Isack Hadjar and Pierre Gasly rounding out the top-10.
Nico Hulkenberg bounced back from his DNS in the Sprint to qualify P11 for Audi ahead of Liam Lawson and Ollie Bearman, who outperformed his Haas team mate as Esteban Ocon claimed P15.
Carlos Sainz was sandwiched between the Haas duo in P14 as both Williams drivers progressed to Q2, although Alex Albon was heard expressing his frustration over the radio as his effort was only good enough for P16.
Arvid Lindblad was the driver who came closest to scraping into Q2, which would have forced a shock exit for Piastri who set all of his Q1 laps on used tyres, but the Racing Bulls rookie couldn’t quite find enough improvement.
He qualified ahead of the Aston Martin pair of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll while Cadillac, in their first home event, ended up in P20 and P21 with Valtteri Bottas leading Sergio Perez. Last up was Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto, who made it onto the track with just a few minutes to go and failed to match his competitors’ pace before a brake fire forced him to abandon the car.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/antonelli-storms-to-miami-grand-prix-pole-ahead-of-verstappen-and-leclerc.RV6Gs6Sku3GUiB4V4hki5
Kimi Antonelli bounced back from the disappointment of another difficult start and a time penalty during Saturday’s Sprint in Miami by storming to pole position in the Qualifying session that followed.
Antonelli dropped from second to fourth at the start of the 100-kilometre race and was then demoted to sixth after the chequered flag for exceeding the track limits on multiple occasions – allowing Mercedes team mate George Russell to close the gap in the Drivers’ Championship.
However, the Italian youngster came back fighting in Qualifying for the Grand Prix, posting a scintillating Q3 time of 1m 27.798s that nobody else could match across two runs – and allowing for a mistake on his own final lap.
Speaking after the session, Antonelli said: “It’s been an amazing day, to be on pole again. It was obviously a difficult start of the day with the Sprint, where it didn’t go our way, but I’m super happy with the recovery.
“It was a good Qualifying. I got a little bit too excited on the last lap of Q3, but the first lap was good enough, and I’m really happy with that.”
Pushed on how he felt after abandoning his second Q3 lap, Antonelli smiled: “I was very stressed! I was just waiting for everyone to finish their laps. At the end, as I said before, it was good enough.”
Antonelli is now focused on executing a stronger start in Sunday’s Grand Prix, and rebuilding his advantage over Russell in the standings, after it was trimmed from nine points to seven in the Sprint.
“Hopefully a magic [start] will happen tomorrow,” he commented. “It would be nice to not lose any positions. We’ll do our best.
“This weekend has obviously been a little bit more difficult for us, but we’re keeping all this together and we’re maximising the performance.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/i-was-very-stressed-antonelli-super-happy-with-miami-pole-after-getting-a-bit-too-excited-on-final-q3-lap.59MEeAxliKzUGHLEe7NQ5d
Max Verstappen says Red Bull’s swift turnaround in Miami following a poor start to the 2026 season is “incredible”, as the team rolled out upgrades that allowed the four-time world champion to push the RB22 instead of “being a passenger”.
Red Bull looked to have missed the mark with a 2026 challenger that proved impossible to balance over the opening rounds of the season, leaving both Verstappen and new team-mate Isack Hadjar adrift of the frontrunners, and behind the likes of Haas in the constructors’ standings.
But a deeper understanding of the RB22’s inherent weaknesses and a first upgrade push in Miami have resulted in a car that appears much more poised.
In the hands of Verstappen that resulted in a first front-row start. The Dutchman’s previous best 2026 qualifying effort before this weekend was eighth in Japan, although Hadjar did claim third on the grid at the opening round in Australia when several rival teams struggled to optimise their new power units.
After taking fifth in Saturday’s sprint, Verstappen’s final qualifying effort bumped him ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to grab second behind triple polesitter Kimi Antonelli in the Mercedes, just two tenths off the Italian championship leader’s benchmark.
“So many things were not working up until this weekend,” the four-time world champion explained his progress. “A few things have changed, and it made it a lot more comfortable to drive. I feel a lot more confidence and I don’t feel like I’m a passenger anymore in the car.
“That was already quite evident yesterday and then I think today the sprint was not too bad. We had some, you know, I could finally follow the cars ahead of me instead of them just pulling away and not seeing them again. And then some tiny changes for qualifying and it seemed like that helped again a little bit. To be on the front row coming from over a second behind in the previous race is really incredible. It’s massive.”
Verstappen hailed the team effort behind the scenes in Milton Keynes that was responsible for giving him a much more connected car, rather than a bucking bronco that could oversteer in one corner and understeer in the next.
“We were really not happy, of course, with what we were doing the previous races, but you can see everyone was pushing flat out to try and understand the problems and they have come with solutions,” he praised his squad. “And that’s just amazing to see. Amazing team effort.”
He added: “Before, nothing really worked. I felt like a total passenger in the car. It could understeer. It could snap on me. It could feel different from one session to the other one without even touching parts. We’re still not where we want to be in terms of understanding everything, but most of it. I can finally drive how I want to drive.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/max-verstappen-no-longer-a-passenger-as-improved-red-bull-yields-miami-f1-front-row/10817542/