Kimi Antonelli made history on Friday as he became the youngest-ever pole sitter in F1 after grabbing a sensational pole position at the Miami International Autodrome for the sprint race on Saturday.
Starting alongside McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, however, he suffered a sluggish start off the line in wet conditions. Not wanting to yield the spot, Antonelli tried to hang his W16 around the outside of the Piastri’s MCL39. But he was squeezed out onto the run-off—and consequently swallowed up by the likes of Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.
Having lost the lead, the 18-year-old slid into P4 and kept that position until the track started to dry out. But as the drivers started jumping into the pit lane to switch from intermediates to slicks, the Italian’s afternoon went from bad to worse.
Verstappen pitted before Antonelli and as the green light came onto the Dutchman’s pit box, he disengaged the clutch and tried exiting his box. However, Antonelli was hot on his heels, trying to enter his own pit box which was right ahead of Red Bull’s garage.
This meant that the #1 driver thwacked the right-hand side of his front end into the side of the Mercedes. This gave Verstappen massive wing damage but also denied Antonelli a chance to pit—meaning he essentially took a virtual ‘drive-through penalty‘ and had to pit once again on the next lap.
While Verstappen received a 10-second penalty for his team’s error with the unsafe release, Antonelli has now come out to absolve the four-time world champion from any blame.
Max Verstappen received a 10-second penalty for unsafe release. He collided with Kimi Antonelli at the pit lane in the sprint race pic.twitter.com/ef8s2CAjfT
— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) May 3, 2025
“About the pit lane [incident], you know, [it] was very unfortunate and nothing to blame on Max because he just got released so, you know, he respected the order,” explained the #12 driver to the media after the sprint race.
After the incident, Antonelli boxed for a set of scrubbed yellow-walled medium tires for the last few laps of the race. But the time lost, going into the pits twice, meant that he came out all the way back in 11th.
And despite his pace on the slick tires, the Italian was aware that the priority now was to ensure that his car was ready and undamaged for qualifying. That is why, he did not push the car too much and settled for a P10 finish at the chequered flag.
With the big points coming in for the Grand Prix on Sunday, his boss, Toto Wolff would be glad that his driver got the W16 back into Parc Ferme unscathed and ready to go for the top-10 shootout, later on Saturday.
Antonelli also reflected on his start to the sprint race where he felt he went “over the limit” trying to reclaim the lead of the race from the Australian. F1 TV Analyst, Jolyon Palmer also agreed with the 2023 FRECA champion and suggested him to have backed off in hindsight.
However, former Alfa Romeo strategist, Ruth Buscombe-Divey came to the Italian’s defense saying that with qualifying around the corner and the risky nature of a sprint race, Antonelli “did a good job”.
