Mercedes returned to form after a troublesome start to the weekend after Antonelli took pole position for the Miami Grand Prix.
Q1
Oscar Piastri found himself in a precarious position towards the end of Q1, as he had only set a time good enough for 11th after his final run, but would be pushed down the order by others going faster than him.
He would find himself in 16th and on the brink of elimination in Q1, with Arvid Lindblad looking to try and get himself out of the elimination zone.
However, despite managing to improve his time, Lindblad was just a bit too slow to move Piastri down another position, and would stay rooted to 17th place.
The Audi cars have struggled a lot with reliability so far this weekend, which only continued further in Q1 as Gabriel Borotleto was unable to set a truly competitive time and struggled with his brakes catching on fire, for which he had to pull over.
ELIMINATED
17. Arvid Lindblad – Racing Bulls+0.213
18. Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin +1.178
19. Lance Stroll – Aston Martin +1.244
20. Valtteri Bottas – Cadillac + 1.709
21. Sergio Perez – Cadillac +2.047
22. Gabriel Bortoleto – Audi +3.817
Q2
Max Verstappen had already demonstrated that his Red Bull was somewhat more competitive after the upgrades brought to his Red Bull this weekend, but he showed just how much better his car seemed as he took provisional pole in Q2, seemingly indicating that he was in the mix for pole.
Carlos Sainz had looked like he might’ve given Williams one of their best qualifying results of the season so far when he put his car up to 11th place, but improvements from Hulkenberg, Lawson and Bearman would push him down to 14th, though none of those drivers would themselves make it to Q3.
ELIMINATED
11. Nico Hulkenberg – Audi +0.369
12. Liam Lawson – Racing Bulls +0.429
13. Ollie Bearman – Haas +0.497
14. Carlos Sainz – Williams +0.498
15. Esteban Ocon – Haas +0.702
16. Alexander Albon – Williams +1.059
Q3
During everyone’s initial laps, there was a close fight between Piastri, Norris, Verstappen and Leclerc, who each briefly held provisional pole before Antonelli set his opening lap and put three tenths on everyone else, all the whole Russell was only quick enough for fifth.
The final flying laps were quite underwhelming, as barely anyone was able to make any improvements. However, one driver was able to go faster, with Max Verstappen going within two tenths of Antonelli’s time to take his first front row start of the season.
Qualifying Results
1. Kimi Antonelli – Mercedes 1:27.798
2. Max Verstappen – Red Bull +0.166
3. Charles Leclerc – Ferrari +0.345
4. Lando Norris – McLaren +0.385
5. George Russell – Mercedes +0.399
6. Lewis Hamilton – Ferrari +0.521
7. Oscar Piastri – McLaren +0.702
8. Franco Colapinto – Alpine +0.964
9. Isack Hadjar- Red Bull +0.991
10. Pierre Gasly – Alpine +1.012
