Kimi Antonelli took pole for Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix. George Russell qualified fourth. The gap between them was small in terms of tenths, but it continued a pattern that’s been building across this entire Miami weekend: one driver entirely at home on the smooth asphalt of the Hard Rock Stadium circuit, the other fighting the surface from the moment he arrived.
Antonelli put in the lap that mattered when it counted in Q3, surging to the front in the closing exchanges. Russell headed out first for a second run but couldn’t improve, leaving him a row behind his teammate as Antonelli held onto pole by a tenth and a half over Max Verstappen.
Toto Wolff gave an explanation for the gap between his drivers:
“George said to me he’s struggled with certain tracks. Here, the asphalt is very smooth,” Wolff said. “It’s almost like a [tennis] player that is good on clay, and another on hard surface.”
Russell himself pointed to the driving as the root cause rather than setup, adding that technique places the tyres in different thermal windows and that Antonelli, from the first lap of the weekend, had simply been on another level compared to his own season form.
Starting on the back foot after the Sprint made recovery harder, with Russell never getting his front end to respond in the middle sector throughout the weekend.
Russell admitted that Miami’s unusually low grip means the cars are sliding around for everyone, McLarens included, but conceded it’s a venue he has never clicked with, and one where his teammate clearly excels.
Wolff, for his part, isn’t seeing this as an issue. “Through qualifying, he made it up and it’s just a smidge missing to P3, so I’m really happy to see his development over qualifying on a track he’s not 100 per cent comfortable.”
Fourth place from a driver who was sixth in Sprint Qualifying and openly struggling with the circuit is a fair recovery. But Antonelli on pole, having also claimed the youngest-ever polesitter record in any F1 format during Sprint Qualifying, makes the gap look a bit more significant than the grid positions alone suggest.
The Championship Tightens
Antonelli arrived in Miami holding a nine-point lead over Russell at the top of the Drivers’ Championship after three rounds.
The Sprint race didn’t help him as Antonelli dropped to sixth after a five-second track limits penalty, handing fourth to Russell. The points gap barely changes, but Russell’s momentum has been damaged.
McLaren, Ferrari, and Red Bull all brought substantial upgrade packages to Miami, while Mercedes held their major update back for the Canadian Grand Prix later in May.
