MIAMI — Mercedes wunderkind rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli beat the McLaren drivers to pole position for the sprint race in Miami and in doing so became the youngest pole sitter in any Formula 1 format.
Antonelli, 18, beat championship leader Oscar Piastri by 0.045 seconds to top a competitive F1 session for the first time in his young career.
Antonelli replaced seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes this year and has already been tipped for great things.
“Yes mate! Come on! Come on,” Antonelli said over the radio after securing the pole spot.
In an interview after the session, he said it was an “intense” qualifying.
“I felt really good since this morning, and I felt confident going into qualifying,” Antonelli said. “And the last lap was mighty. I put basically everything together and it was nice that it all came very nicely and I’m really happy to get the first pole.
“Tomorrow it’s going to be nice to start on the front row. It’s going to be a bit of a different feeling, but I really cannot wait for tomorrow and to see how we can do in the sprint and then in the qualifying as well.”
The previous youngest ever pole sitter was Sebastian Vettel at the age of 21 years and 73 days in 2008 at the Italian Grand Prix with Toro Rosso, now Racing Bulls, before sprint races existed.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said it did not matter what kind of pole it was.
“It’s about the trajectory. It’s not whether it’s a pole in only the sprint, or a pole tomorrow or in the future, he’s done it and he’s quickest,” said the Austrian.
Antonelli will start ahead of Piastri and Lando Norris.
“We can still fight from there in the sprint tomorrow. All in all pretty happy,” Piastri said.
“We’ve got a bit more pace to unlock hopefully, so I’m feeling positive still. I’ll try to make up a spot in the sprint before we get stuck into where the big points are.”
New father Max Verstappen, who missed the media day on Thursday because of the birth of his first daughter, Lily, qualified fourth ahead of Antonelli’s teammate George Russell.
Red Bull will have only one driver fighting at the top end of the field in the sprint, with Verstappen’s teammate Yuki Tsunoda failing to make it out of the SQ1 session. The Japanese driver will start 18th.
Ferrari pair Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton will start sixth and seventh.
Williams driver Alex Albon took eighth, while impressive Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar continued his strong recent run with ninth position.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, still without a point this season, took a morale-boosting 10th position for his team.
Nico Hulkenberg took an impressive 11th position for the Sauber team — Tsunoda’s elimination from SQ1 was the only major surprise otherwise.
The opening session featured a furious radio message from Alpine driver Jack Doohan, directed at his team.
Doohan complained that his hopes of progressing to SQ1 had been ruined by the angle he was released from the garage ahead of his final run.
Doohan lost valuable time while trying to realign his car on its turn into the pit lane as teammate Pierre Gasly emerged from the pit lane next to him.
“Mate, that’s not acceptable. That’s not acceptable,” Doohan said. “If you’re going to send him after me, you have to make sure he’s ready, or before me. I can’t turn out and have to turn out because he’s going to run into me. And then you guys put me out of Q1. Such a joke!”
Doohan’s future beyond this week is still unclear with Alpine reserve driver Franco Colapinto waiting in the wings.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
