{"id":257439,"date":"2026-05-04T08:24:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T08:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/257439\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T08:24:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T08:24:21","slug":"antonelli-beats-verstappen-to-f1-miami-gp-pole-as-storm-threat-brings-race-forward-by-three-hours-formula-one-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/257439\/","title":{"rendered":"Antonelli beats Verstappen to F1 Miami GP pole as storm threat brings race forward by three hours | Formula One 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kimi Antonelli took pole position for the Miami Grand Prix with a strong lap, but only by narrowly beating a resurgent Max Verstappen<\/a> and Red Bull into second place.<\/p>\n

After the session had finished, the FIA, F1 and the Miami promoter issued a joint statement announcing the start of Sunday\u2019s race had been brought forward from 4pm to 1pm local time \u2013 6pm BST \u2013 because of heavy thunderstorms forecast for the afternoon.<\/p>\n

On the track Charles Leclerc<\/a> and Lewis Hamilton were in third and sixth for Ferrari, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in fourth and seventh for McLaren, while Antonelli\u2019s Mercedes teammate George Russell could manage only fifth, four-10ths back from the Italian.<\/p>\n

Antonelli, who leads the world championship by seven points from Russell, claimed his third straight pole, reasserting Mercedes\u2019 pace at the front of the field that had looked to be genuinely under threat over the weekend in Miami. Not least when Norris and Piastri took a dominant one-two in the sprint race<\/a> earlier on Saturday at the Hard Rock stadium.<\/p>\n

With Red Bull<\/a>, Ferrari and McLaren all bringing major upgrades to Miami, it had appeared they had at least caught Mercedes, who are not employing any substantial developments until the next round in Canada.<\/p>\n

Russell had described the advances made by his team\u2019s rivals as \u201cdaunting\u201d and the Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, conceded after the sprint that they had made up little ground in Miami but that a fierce development fight remained ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not really a surprise about other teams catching up, it\u2019s just the first year of this new regulation,\u201d Antonelli said. \u201cIt\u2019s also going to be a development fight between teams. Whoever is going to be able to bring more upgrades and more potent ones is going to make the difference. But definitely to see Max here, we did not expect it as a team but obviously, they brought big upgrades.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kimi Antonelli in action in Miami. Photograph: Clive Mason\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

However, when it mattered over the single lap, Antonelli still enjoyed the advantage and delivered with a fine piece of controlled driving where he just had the edge over Verstappen, who was genuinely enjoying the handling and performance of his car for the first time this season as Red Bull\u2019s upgrades had clearly delivered.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many things were not working up until this weekend,\u201d said Verstappen. \u201cFor me in the car itself a few things have changed and it made it a lot more comfortable to drive. I feel a lot more confident and I don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m a passenger any more in the car.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLaren and Ferrari were closer to Antonelli but they remained three-10ths back. Russell, in turn, will be concerned he could not get closer to his teenage teammate who has won two of the past three races.<\/p>\n

The leaders were closely matched going into the final laps in Q3 and Piastri and Norris opened early to set the benchmark times. Norris was on top with a 1 minute 28.183-second lap but they were swiftly surpassed by Verstappen and then Leclerc. Antonelli, however, had more still to come, with a huge final sector he put a full three-10ths on Leclerc with a 1min 27.798sec, while Russell could manage only fifth.<\/p>\n

On the final hot runs, Antonelli did not improve but nor did the opposition with the exception of Verstappen who pushed hard to claim second from Antonelli by just over a 10th and a half. The Italian had pole but Verstappen had comfortably enjoyed his best qualifying of the season to secure a front-row spot.<\/p>\n

The race start time was changed, given that local weather forecasters were predicting a high likelihood of thunderstorms hitting the circuit in the afternoon. The US national weather service advises that sporting events should be stopped if there is an incidence of thunder and lightning within six to 10 miles.<\/p>\n

The FIA met F1\u2019s key stakeholders on Saturday afternoon after qualifying to discuss making contingency plans, including bringing the start time forward by several hours. The current forecast warns of \u201cwidespread rain showers and embedded thunderstorms\u201d on Sunday afternoon. With rain expected on Sunday, it may be the first time these have been driven competitively in the wet. They issued a statement confirming the change to the start time.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing discussions between FIA, F1 and the Miami promoter, the decision has been taken to move the start of Sunday\u2019s Miami Grand Prix to 13:00 local time in Miami due to the weather forecast that is expected to bring heavier rainstorms later in the afternoon close to the original planned race start time,\u201d it read.<\/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 prioritise the safety of drivers, fans, teams and staff.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kimi Antonelli took pole position for the Miami Grand Prix with a strong lap, but only by narrowly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-257439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}