‘I was very stressed!’ – Antonelli ‘super happy’ with Miami pole after getting ‘a bit too excited’ on final Q3 lap

Kimi Antonelli bounced back from the disappointment of another difficult start and a time penalty during Saturday’s Sprint in Miami by storming to pole position in the Qualifying session that followed.

Antonelli dropped from second to fourth at the start of the 100-kilometre race and was then demoted to sixth after the chequered flag for exceeding the track limits on multiple occasions – allowing Mercedes team mate George Russell to close the gap in the Drivers’ Championship.

However, the Italian youngster came back fighting in Qualifying for the Grand Prix, posting a scintillating Q3 time of 1m 27.798s that nobody else could match across two runs – and allowing for a mistake on his own final lap.

Speaking after the session, Antonelli said: “It’s been an amazing day, to be on pole again. It was obviously a difficult start of the day with the Sprint, where it didn’t go our way, but I’m super happy with the recovery.

“It was a good Qualifying. I got a little bit too excited on the last lap of Q3, but the first lap was good enough, and I’m really happy with that.”

Pushed on how he felt after abandoning his second Q3 lap, Antonelli smiled: “I was very stressed! I was just waiting for everyone to finish their laps. At the end, as I said before, it was good enough.”

Antonelli is now focused on executing a stronger start in Sunday’s Grand Prix, and rebuilding his advantage over Russell in the standings, after it was trimmed from nine points to seven in the Sprint.

“Hopefully a magic [start] will happen tomorrow,” he commented. “It would be nice to not lose any positions. We’ll do our best.

“This weekend has obviously been a little bit more difficult for us, but we’re keeping all this together and we’re maximising the performance.”