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Alonso will start tenth and Sainz fifteenth
Italian driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli surprised this Friday with the pole position for Saturday’s Sprint race at the Miami Grand Prix, the sixth race of the season, where Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) will start tenth and fellow Spaniard Carlos Sainz (Williams) will start fifteenth due to an error in Q2.
With the spotlight on McLaren and Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in the tight battle for the championship, the grid saw some surprises. Antonelli secured his first-ever pole position, even if it’s for the shorter race, with a time of 1:26.482, 45 thousandths faster than Oscar Piastri (McLaren).
The championship leader, with 89 points compared to his teammate Lando Norris’ 88, once again outperformed the Brit, who will start third. Norris, who is confident that Miami, where he claimed his first F1 victory last year despite starting fifth, will boost his title hopes. Meanwhile, Verstappen (87 points overall) will start fourth.
The four-time world champion quickly adapted to the International Autodrome next to the Hard Rock Stadium, having just become a father for the first time. The strategy of the day was to push the limits with the clock, which resulted in an early elimination for Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull), while George Russell (Mercedes) finished fifth, ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.
Another surprise in Q3 was Alonso’s presence, who, amidst the battle to maximize the Aston Martin’s performance, enjoyed his best qualifying session of the season. On the other hand, Carlos Sainz, who had shown promise in Jeddah and during practice in Miami, made a mistake right at the checkered flag and missed out on setting a lap time to progress from Q2, placing fifteenth for the Sprint race.
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