Revealed: The one corner that secured Kimi Antonelli pole in Sprint qualy

Kimi Antonelli delivered a truly fantastic session on Friday in Miami, becoming the youngest driver to claim pole position in any format in Formula 1 history, while also setting a new lap record on a track he was driving for the very first time.

Telemetry data reveals how the teenage Italian managed to beat both McLaren drivers to secure pole position for the Sprint race.

A brilliant third sector made the difference

Although the Mercedes car looked good on track, few expected Kimi to cause such an upset. After the first and only Free Practice session, he was down in P9, over a second behind Oscar Piastri’s pace-setting lap time.

The Italian later revealed after Sprint Qualifying that Mercedes had been focused on completing as many laps as possible to gather data for both the Sprint and the main race.

After SQ2, Kimi’s time was slower than Verstappen and both the McLaren drivers – nothing unusual at that point.

However, he began his final flying lap in SQ3 very late and capitalised on the improved track conditions. In the end, the gap between him and second-placed Piastri was just 0.045s, while Norris in P3 was 0.1s off – incredibly small margins for a track like Miami.

Looking at the sector times, it’s clear that the third sector is where the Mercedes driver made the crucial difference.

In Sector 1, the margins are very tight. After Turns 1 and 2, Oscar gained a slight advantage thanks to better traction, but the Mercedes driver made up the deficit with a strong exit out of Turn 3, and by Turn 4, they were neck and neck again.

In the following section of the lap, the differences remained minimal until T11, where Piastri pulled slightly ahead. Through the end of Sector 2, the slowest part of the track, the McLaren’s impressive downforce advantage became clear, helping it edge ahead of the W16. Also playing a role here was Piastri’s greater confidence, having already pushed to the limits on this narrow circuit where any mistake can be costly.

F1 2025 head-to-head stats

? F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

? F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

Up until Turn 17, Oscar had built a solid lead and pole position looked firmly in his grasp.

However, Antonelli’s superb braking into T17 and his ability to maintain greater stability and speed on exit gave him a huge advantage. He carried this speed through the final two corners and officially snatched pole from the Australian.

You can clearly see the difference in their approach to Turn 17, where Kimi clipped the apex with his front-left tyre on the kerbs, while Oscar stayed notably wider.

A brilliant performance and an excellent opportunity for Kimi to deliver valuable points to Mercedes in the Sprint and help secure second place in the Constructors’ standings.

The Brackley squad have started the 2025 season strongly and, despite Kimi being very young and still inexperienced, both drivers continue to be consistent – extracting the maximum from the car at every race weekend.

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