Kimi Antonelli reacts to historic Miami F1 pole feat that matched Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna

Kimi Antonelli says it was “amazing” to land a historic Formula 1 pole position hat-trick in qualifying at the Miami Grand Prix.

For the third consecutive race, Antonelli came out on top of a gripping qualifying session to beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.166 seconds and claim his third pole in four grands prix during the 2026 season.

Despite messing up his final Q3 attempt and missing the chance to improve his time further, Antonelli still took a comfortable pole ahead of Verstappen and third-placed Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari.

The 19-year-old Italian also outpaced Mercedes team-mate and title rival George Russell by four-tenths of a second as the pre-season championship favourite could only manage fifth on the grid.

Antonelli has followed F1 legends Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna in taking the first three poles of his career at three successive events.

"It has been an amazing day to be on pole again,” said Antonelli, who leads the championship by seven points heading into Sunday’s race.

”It was a difficult start to the day with the sprint but super-happy with the recovery. I got a little bit excited on the final lap of Q3 but the first lap was good enough. I was very stressed just waiting for everyone to finish their laps.”

Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Antonelli added: “It hasn’t been easy this weekend, the track was very hot and very slippery.

“Also this track is not easy to put all the sectors together. I was happy with my lap. Maybe there was a little bit more on the table, but we don’t know because I didn’t even do one corner.

“But I’m happy with the performance, especially with the others bringing upgrades. It has been a bit more difficult for us, but the team did a tremendous job.”

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was full of praise for Antonelli’s “special” pole lap.

"That first lap was really special because, as you see, he was three or more tenths ahead of the next guy. Spectacular, and that made the pole, but then it was a Kimi," Wolff told Sky Sports F1.

"We are having confidence, and then we are overpushing it but that's how he is.

“It's already an improvement because in the past it would end up in the wall. Now it's just a missed lap, but he's just showing his speed and that's really, really nice to see."