{"id":21277,"date":"2026-05-03T09:57:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T08:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=21277"},"modified":"2026-05-03T09:57:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T08:57:06","slug":"teen-f1-leader-antonelli-takes-miami-pole-as-race-start-time-changed-motorsports-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=21277","title":{"rendered":"Teen F1 leader Antonelli takes Miami pole as race start time changed | Motorsports News"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Published On 3 May 2026<\/span>3 May 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Championship-leading teenager Kimi Antonelli has claimed pole position for the Miami Grand Prix as the race\u2019s start time was brought forward by three hours due to an expected heavy rainstorm.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old Italian, the youngest title race leader in Formula One history, resisted a late charge by four-time champion Max Verstappen in a tense qualifying session on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\n

Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n

list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n

The Mercedes driver produced a fastest lap of one minute 27.798 seconds to top the times ahead of Red Bull\u2019s Verstappen with Charles Leclerc third quickest in his Ferrari.<\/p>\n

World champion Lando Norris, who won the sprint race earlier in the day, will start his McLaren from fourth in Sunday\u2019s grid.<\/p>\n

It was Antonelli\u2019s third pole and his third in consecutive races, a feat that draws him alongside great former champions Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher in the record books.<\/p>\n

His Mercedes teammate George Russell was fifth ahead of seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton in the second Ferrari and Oscar Piastri, who was seventh in the second McLaren.<\/p>\n

Alpine\u2019s Franco Colapinto was eighth ahead of Isack Hadjar in the second Red Bull and the second Alpine of Pierre Gasly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been an amazing day for me to be on pole again,\u201d Antonelli said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was obviously a difficult sprint for me earlier, but I am super happy with this recovery. I got a little too excited in that last lap in Q3, but my first lap was good enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so stressed because I was waiting for everyone to finish their laps, but it was good enough, and now, hopefully, I will have a magic start tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mercedes'
Antonelli celebrates after winning the pole position [Charly Triballeau\/AFP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018Heavier rainstorms\u2019<\/h2>\n

The Miami Grand Prix will start at 1pm (17:00 GMT) rather than the previously scheduled 4pm (20:00 GMT) due to a forecast of extreme weather, including potential thunderstorms, officials announced on the eve of the race.<\/p>\n

The sport\u2019s governing body, FIA, along with commercial rights holders and local promoters acted \u201cdue to the weather forecast that is expected to bring heavier rainstorms later in the afternoon close to the original planned race start time\u201d, they said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision has been taken to ensure the least amount of disruption to the race, and to ensure the maximum possible window to complete the Grand Prix in the best conditions and to prioritize the safety of drivers, fans, teams and staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

The change was made as F1 returns from a five-week hiatus due to the United States-Israel war on Iran, which several teams exploited with upgrade packages on their cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me to be on the front row is way better than I expected,\u201d said Verstappen, who was close to his best in his heavily revised Red Bull.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s hope for a good start. I\u2019ve not had many of them this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team has worked flat out for the past few weeks to make me more comfortable in this car.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Red
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands in action during a qualifying session [Danny Karnik\/AP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018No grip\u2019<\/h2>\n

The qualifying session began in sweltering heat and a swirling wind as Valtteri Bottas led out in his Cadillac before teammate Sergio Perez.<\/p>\n

It took time for the lap times to tumble before the leading contenders clocked fast laps with Norris and Verstappen setting the pace with Antonelli and the two Ferraris.<\/p>\n

Verstappen grumbled his tyres \u201chave no grip\u201d as he was outpaced by both Ferraris with Hamilton top in 1:28.477 until Antonelli took over in 1:28.352 with Russell slotting in third with an identical time to Hamilton.<\/p>\n

Ferrari have clearly improved their set-up after the earlier sprint race won convincingly by Norris in a McLaren one-two ahead of Piastri.<\/p>\n

Like the Italian team, Mercedes also seemed to be quicker, and Antonelli improved to 1:28.289 before, in a final flurry, Verstappen took command in 1:28.116 to finish Q2 ahead of Antonelli, Leclerc, Piastri and Hamilton. Norris improved to seventh.<\/p>\n

Piastri and Norris set the pace in Q3 before Verstappen and Leclerc outdid them and Antonelli, with a sizzling lap in 1:27.798, securing provisional pole after the first runs, three-tenths clear of Leclerc\u2019s Ferrari.<\/p>\n

The top five were separated by just hundredths of a second with Hamilton sixth, 0.578 off the Italian\u2019s pace as they paused before the drama of the late final runs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published On 3 May 20263 May 2026 Championship-leading teenager Kimi Antonelli has claimed pole position for the Miami Grand Prix as the race\u2019s start time was brought forward by three hours due to an expected heavy rainstorm. The 19-year-old Italian, the youngest title race leader in Formula One history, resisted a late charge by four-time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}