Andrea Kimi Antonelli took pole position for the Miami Grand Prix on Saturday with a 1min 27.798sec lap, then watched the race start moved forward by three hours after officials warned of heavy thunderstorms in the afternoon.
The FIA, Formula 1 and the Miami promoter said Sunday’s race would begin at 1pm local time, or 6pm BST, instead of 4pm, after qualifying at the Hard Rock Stadium. Max Verstappen finished second to secure a front-row spot, while Charles Leclerc was third for Ferrari and Lando Norris took fourth for McLaren.
George Russell qualified fifth for Mercedes, four-tenths back from Antonelli, with Lewis Hamilton sixth for Ferrari and Oscar Piastri seventh for McLaren. Antonelli’s third straight pole came a day after Norris and Piastri had delivered a dominant one-two in the sprint race earlier on Saturday.
The result reasserted Mercedes at the front after a weekend in which their pace had looked under pressure, especially with Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren all bringing major upgrades to Miami while Mercedes held back substantial changes until Canada. Antonelli, who leads the world championship by seven points from Russell, has now won two of the past three races and kept the edge in a field that has been pulled tighter by the upgrade fight.
Verstappen said after qualifying that so many things were not working up until this weekend, before adding that changes to the car had made it much more comfortable to drive and left him feeling more confident rather than like a passenger. Russell described the prospect of the pace at the sharp end as daunting, as Mercedes prepared to defend a position it did not expect to hold this strongly when the weekend began.
The question now is whether Antonelli can turn pole into another win when the race starts earlier and under the threat of storms that forced the schedule change in the first place.
