The Miami GP sprint shootout was turning out to be an intense affair with multiple cars dropping out of contention for pole. Amid this pressure, Mercedes prodigy, Kimi Antonelli stunned everyone by clinching his maiden pole position, be it for the sprint race at the Miami International Autodrome.
The 18-year-old set a blistering lap time of 1:26.482, which was 0.045 seconds quicker than his nearest rival, Oscar Piastri—one of the favorites for pole besides his teammate Lando Norris and title rival, Max Verstappen. However, Antonelli maximized his car’s pace as the W16 came alive on Friday afternoon.
In the process, the Italian has also become the youngest driver ever to clinch pole in any format (sprint qualifying or Grand Prix qualifying), and he has broken this record by some distance. Antonelli has clinched his maiden pole at the age of just 18 years, 8 months, and 7 days.
The previous driver who held the record for being the youngest pole sitter was four-time world champion, Sebastian Vettel, having secured his maiden pole at the age of 21 years, 2 months, 11 days at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix. While Antonelli would be proud of this stat, the Bologna-born driver has also made his country proud by ending a 16-year-long drought!
He has now become the first Italian driver since Giancarlo Fisichella at the 2009 Belgian GP to take pole position in any qualifying format. While Fisichella—driving for Force India at the time—was not able to convert his pole position into a win, finishing second at Spa, Antonelli will hope that he can convert his pole and secure another milestone this weekend.
What made Antonelli’s pole position even more impressive was the amount of pressure he had to face in the dying embers of SQ3. Being in the last wave of drivers on their flying laps, it was a crunch situation for the Italian, with the top three in the championship chasing the provisional pole time set by his teammate, George Russell.
While Verstappen beat that time to go P1, Antonelli ensured the reigning world champion’s joy didn’t last long. Surpassing his time by over two-tenths, the #12 driver broke the lap time record of the Miami International Autodrome while also beating the McLarens.
Kimi Antonelli becomes the first Italian driver since Giancarlo Fisichella at the 2009 Belgian GP to take pole position in any qualifying format.
Sixteen years on, Italy finally returns to the front of the grid.#F1 #MiamiGP pic.twitter.com/WZe8FvTMtx
— Sundaram R (@f1statsguru) May 2, 2025
With Russell being one of the first drivers to set his lap time in the final part of the sprint qualifying session, he was perhaps not able to make the most of the improved track conditions towards the end and ended up P5. Even Verstappen dropped down to fourth by the session’s end.
Now, both McLarens of Piastri and Norris would be the favorite to win the sprint race on Saturday morning, even though Russell and Verstappen would try their best to get in the fight.
Nevertheless, Friday definitely belonged to Antonelli, who managed to grab pole at a circuit where he had never even driven before. The Italian had only driven around the Miami International Autodrome on the simulator, as revealed by Sky Sports’ Martin Brundle.
While commenting on Antonelli’s achievement, the former McLaren driver said, “Tremendous. What an effort from such a young driver. He has no experience of Miami other than on the simulator and has gone out and smashed a lap in. That’s an outstanding effort“.
If Antonelli is somehow able to convert his pole position into a win, he will also become one of the youngest race winners, be it in a sprint. Unfortunately, for Antonelli, he would not be the youngest as Verstappen won his maiden race at the age of just 18 years and 228 days at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix.
Antonelli is already 18 years and 240 days old, so he will have to settle for being the second youngest race winner in F1, if does triumph in Miami.
