At just 18 years and 250 days old, the Mercedes rookie clinched pole for the sprint race with a lap time of 1:26.482, narrowly edging out McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by 0.045 seconds.

This achievement surpasses the previous record held by Sebastian Vettel, who secured pole at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix at 21 years and 72 days old. Antonelli’s performance is particularly noteworthy given Mercedes’ challenges this season compared to rivals like McLaren and Red Bull. Despite these hurdles, Antonelli delivered a flawless lap under the pressure of the sprint qualifying format, which offers limited practice time.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli's reaction to his first pole position ever!#F1 #Formula1 #MiamiGP #F1Sprintpic.twitter.com/JFNRISaNJw

— Extreme Cars (@extremecars__) May 2, 2025

Antonelli’s rapid ascent in Formula 1 has been remarkable. Earlier in the season, he became the youngest driver to lead a Grand Prix and to set the fastest lap in a race. His consistent performances are garnering praise from the F1 community and reinforcing Mercedes’ decision to promote him as Lewis Hamilton’s successor.

Speaking of his achievement in Florida, Antonelli said it was something he certainly did not expect.

“I’m feeling over the moon. I did not expect it, but I was feeling good in the car,” said Antonelli.

“I was able to improve lap by lap and find that consistency, and that lap came all together. I’m super, super happy with that. Now we will enjoy this moment a little bit, but I also want to focus on tomorrow because I really want to try and repeat myself.

So happy and super proud #MiamiGP #F1 https://t.co/BlIyTy91ou

— Andrea Kimi Antonelli (@F1KimiAntonelli) May 3, 2025

“We did quite a long run in FP1 to try and gather as much information as possible.

“Of course, we don’t really know the pace of the others, but I guess we will see tomorrow during the Sprint. And then, about qualifying – the track is going to keep evolving, so it’s going to be important to stay on top of it and try to repeat ourselves.”

The sprint race in Miami will get underway on Saturday at 18:00, while qualifying for Sunday’s main race will commence at 22:00.

The top five qualifiers for the sprint race were:

1. Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)

2. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)

3. Lando Norris (McLaren)

4. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

5. George Russell (Mercedes)

OFM Sport/Morgan Piek cg