Mercedes youngster Andrea Kimi Antonelli hit a major milestone in his Formula 1 career as the Italian driver secured his first-ever pole position, going quickest in Sprint Qualifying at the 2025 Miami Grand Prix.
The 18-year-old has become the youngest polesitter in Formula 1 history across any format, and it is also the first time that he has outqualified his teammate, George Russell, during his maiden season in the sport.
Having been tasked with filling the void left by Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, Antonelli now has his first major achievement in the bag and will be aiming to convert his pole position during the Sprint race on Saturday evening.
It was an incredibly narrow victory in qualifying as Antonelli only beat McLaren‘s Oscar Piastri to pole by 0.045 seconds, and he will have to try and keep the Drivers’ Championship leader at bay on Saturday.
Antonelli thrilled by Miami Sprint pole
Despite showing that he can operate in a very calm manner on track during the early stages of the 2025 season, Kimi Antonelli is also not afraid to show his emotions when needed and he was visibly thrilled and shocked to have taken pole in Sprint Qualifying.
Speaking to F1TV after the session, Antonelli admitted that he did not expect pole, saying: “I’m feeling over the moon. I did not expect it, but I was feeling good in the car. I was able to improve lap by lap and find that consistency, and yeah, that lap came all together.
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“I’m super, super happy with that. Now we’ll enjoy this moment a little bit more, but I also want to focus on tomorrow because I really want to try and repeat myself.”
When pushed on the emotional aspect of finding his dad in the pits after getting out of the car, Antonelli admitted that there are other members of his family who he would also liked to have shared the moment in Miami with.
“It was really nice to find him in the garage right after qualifying,” Antonelli said. “I’m super happy to share this moment with him. He’s so important to me—he’s like a rock. I know I can always rely on him, so I’m really happy to share this with him. Unfortunately, I’d like to share it with my mom and my sister as well, but hopefully next time.”
With only one practice session before Sprint Qualifying, Antonelli knows that there is still a lot of mystery when it comes to his race pace.
“We did quite a long run in FP1 to try and gather as much information as possible,” Antonelli said. “Of course, we don’t really know the pace of the others yet, but I guess we’ll see tomorrow during the race.
“As for qualifying, the track is going to keep evolving, so it’s going to be important to stay on top of that and try to repeat ourselves.”
