Rookie Antonelli takes shock Miami dash pole

MIAMI — Mercedes wunderkind rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli beat the McLaren drivers to pole place for the dash race in Miami and in doing so turned the youngest pole sitter in any Formulation 1 format.

Antonelli, 18, beat championship chief Oscar Piastri by 0.045 seconds to high a aggressive F1 session for the primary time in his younger profession.

Antonelli changed seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes this 12 months and has already been tipped for nice issues.

“Sure mate! Come on! Come on,” Antonelli stated over the radio after securing the pole spot.

In an interview after the session, he stated it was an “intense” qualifying.

“I felt actually good since this morning, and I felt assured going into qualifying,” Antonelli stated. “And the final lap was mighty. I put principally every little thing collectively and it was good that all of it got here very properly and I am actually completely happy to get the primary pole.

“Tomorrow it may be good to start out on the entrance row. It may be a little bit of a unique feeling, however I actually can’t watch for tomorrow and to see how we are able to do within the dash after which within the qualifying as properly.”

The earlier youngest ever pole sitter was Sebastian Vettel on the age of 21 years and 73 days in 2008 on the Italian Grand Prix with Toro Rosso, now Racing Bulls, earlier than dash races existed.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff stated it didn’t matter what sort of pole it was.

“It is concerning the trajectory. It isn’t whether or not it is a pole in solely the dash, or a pole tomorrow or sooner or later, he is completed it and he is quickest,” stated the Austrian.

Antonelli will begin forward of Piastri and Lando Norris.

“We are able to nonetheless battle from there within the dash tomorrow. All in all fairly completely happy,” Piastri stated.

“We have got a bit extra tempo to unlock hopefully, so I am feeling constructive nonetheless. I am going to attempt to make up a spot within the dash earlier than we get caught into the place the large factors are.”

New father Max Verstappen, who missed the media day on Thursday due to the delivery of his first daughter, Lily, certified fourth forward of Antonelli’s teammate George Russell.

Purple Bull can have just one driver combating on the high finish of the sector within the dash, with Verstappen’s teammate Yuki Tsunoda failing to make it out of the SQ1 session. The Japanese driver will begin 18th.

Ferrari pair Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton will begin sixth and seventh.

Williams driver Alex Albon took eighth, whereas spectacular Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar continued his robust current run with ninth place.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, nonetheless with no level this season, took a morale-boosting tenth place for his workforce.

Nico Hulkenberg took a formidable eleventh place for the Sauber workforce — Tsunoda’s elimination from SQ1 was the one main shock in any other case.

The opening session featured a livid radio message from Alpine driver Jack Doohan, directed at his workforce.

Doohan complained that his hopes of progressing to SQ1 had been ruined by the angle he was launched from the storage forward of his last run.

Doohan misplaced precious time whereas making an attempt to realign his automobile on its flip into the pit lane as teammate Pierre Gasly emerged from the pit lane subsequent to him.

“Mate, that is not acceptable. That is not acceptable,” Doohan stated. “If you are going to ship him after me, it’s a must to be certain he is prepared, or earlier than me. I can not prove and need to prove as a result of he’ll run into me. And you then guys put me out of Q1. Such a joke!”

Doohan’s future past this week remains to be unclear with Alpine reserve driver Franco Colapinto ready within the wings.

Info from Reuters was used on this report.