MIAMI, Florida — Earlier in the day during the FIA Press Conference, Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff praised his rookie driver Kimi Antonelli for “building up constantly.”
As day turned to night at Hard Rock Stadium Wolff had another reason to praise the team’s young driver, as Antonelli delivered a thunderous lap at the end of Q3 to secure his first pole position, for tomorrow’s F1 Sprint race.
“Congratulations to Kimi on his first Sprint pole position in F1,” said Wolff in the team’s post-session media report. “It was a great lap in a tight session and will be a moment he will never forget.
“Whilst it is good that we will start tomorrow’s Sprint from P1, the most important thing is the progress we are seeing from Kimi. He continues to learn and get better every weekend.
“He has now topped a session, even if it came in Sprint Qualifying. It is another important milestone in his development, and we will continue to support him to maintain this trajectory,” added Wolff.
The Mercedes boss was not the only team member heaping praise on Antonelli. Andrew Shovlin, the team’s Trackside Engineering Director, joined in on the fun as well.
“It’s great to see Kimi take a well deserved Sprint pole! He has looked strong from the first lap of FP1 but clearly saved the best until last,” said Shovlin.
Shovlin also paid tribute to a bit of history.
“To become the youngest driver to take a pole position in any format in F1 is a special moment and one he deserves to savor right now,” continued Shovlin. “Our attention will swiftly turn to tomorrow though with the Sprint and then Qualifying for the Grand Prix later in the afternoon.”
That was not the only history Antonelli made on Friday. His final lap in qualifying set a new record for the Miami International Autodrome, now in its fourth year on the Formula 1 schedule.
Rounding out the praise from the team was none other than George Russell, who qualified fifth for tomorrow’s F1 Sprint race.
“Firstly, massive congratulations to Kimi! I’m really pleased to see him take his first pole position,” said Russell. “He’s been really quick right from the first lap in FP1 and that is really impressive. It is great for him and the whole team; hopefully he can convert that into a strong result in tomorrow’s Sprint.”
As for the young driver, Antonelli conceded that he did not expect such a result.
“I’m feeling over the moon. I did not expect it, but I was feeling good in the car,” said Antonelli after qualifying to the official F1 channel.
“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, and now we will enjoy this moment a little bit more, but as well I want to focus on tomorrow because I really want to try and repeat myself.”
Antonelli will get that chance to repeat himself tomorrow when the lights go out for the 19-lap F1 Sprint race. He’ll face a tall task to hold onto P1, as he’ll have the fast McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris starting behind him in P2 and P3, respectively.
Still, the young driver has already made some history here in Miami, and the weekend is just getting started.
