At the Miami Grand Prix, Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli has surpassed championship leader Oscar Piastri to claim the top spot in the sprint race.
At the Miami Grand Prix, the Italian created history by finishing with the quickest time in Sprint Qualifying. However, his task was somewhat facilitated by Mercedes and Red Bull releasing their best prospects a bit too early in SQ3.
Despite being a complete newbie at the track in his debut year of Formula 1, the Italian managed to finish with the quickest time with a stunning 1:26.482 at the end of SQ3.
Oscar Piastri, the McLaren title leader, was 0.045 seconds ahead of him. Lando Norris finished third in the second McLaren, ahead of Max Verstappen of Red Bull and George Russell of Mercedes.
As Russell and Verstappen set out on the track to complete their fast laps on the soft tires over five minutes ahead of their competitors, Red Bull and Mercedes compromised their last attempts, which helped to define the session.
In spite of his now-past-their-best tires, Verstappen was able to improve on his second flying lap following his first, a 1:27.070, which would have placed him in the bottom part of the top 10.
Despite having a time of 1:26.791, which was faster than Verstappen's initial try, Russell returned to the pits following his one and only attempt, and the checkered flag pushed him down to fifth.
Charles Leclerc of Ferrari finished sixth, which was a quarter of a second ahead of seventh-place finisher Lewis Hamilton.
Alex Albon lived true to Williams' promise of impressive performance throughout qualifying, finishing in eighth place alongside Isack Hadjar of Racing Bull in ninth place, ahead of Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin.
In the second round, Carlos Sainz of Williams was unexpectedly eliminated. On his last flying lap, the Spaniard went off the track after making a crucial mistake going into Turn 11. As he made his way back to the pits, he apologized to his crew for ruining his one and only opportunity.
Nico Hülkenberg of Sauber in 11th place, Esteban Ocon of Haas, Pierre Gasly of Alpine, and Liam Lawson of Racing Bulls joined Sainz on the sidelines.
Jack Doohan was furious after being eliminated in the first round of Sprint qualifying. When the Alpine driver left the garage in the last few minutes of the practice, the team released him concurrently with Pierre Gasly, another colleague, compromising the driver. Due to Doohan's inability to apply complete steering lock after his first pullout, he ended up approaching the pit wall too closely and had to halt, allowing other competitor vehicles to obstruct Gasly's path.
Yuki Tsunoda of Red Bull and Lance Stroll of Aston Martin were also eliminated. With an uphill battle ahead of him in the Sprint race, the Japanese driver thought he was being held up by another vehicle exiting the pits at the beginning of his second run after locking up on his first flying lap.
Gabriel Bortoleto of Sauber came in at number 19, while Ollie Bearman of Haas came in at number 20.