Antonelli survives surprise Verstappen challenge for Miami GP pole
Formula 1 world championship leader Kimi Antonelli resisted a surprise challenge from Max Verstappen to take Miami Grand Prix pole as McLaren slumped after its sprint breakthrough.
Antonelli's Mercedes team-mate and title rival George Russell's Miami struggle continued as he qualified only fifth.
Antonelli held an advantage of over three tenths of a second going into the final moments of Q1, but that was slashed to 0.166s by Verstappen at the end - in what was comfortably Red Bull's strongest performance of 2026 so far. Verstappen had hinted at what was to come by topping Q2.
McLaren had taken a commanding 1-2 in the sprint earlier in the day, yet never looked a pole threat in this session.
Oscar Piastri had a power issue in Q1 - when he was only 16th - and Lando Norris had a boost concern in Q2, leaving McLaren confident it would be in the pole fight once those were resolved for Q3.
Instead Norris and Piastri were a muted fourth and seventh.
Charles Leclerc had been on course for a front row for Ferrari until Verstappen's improvement pushed him back to third, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton sixth behind Russell.
Franco Colapinto starred in qualifying for a second day in a row as he led the next group in eighth ahead of the second Red Bull of Isack Hadjar and his Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly.
With Racing Bulls and Haas not looking like Q3 threats again, most of the drama before the pole shootout came from Audi.
While Nico Hulkenberg bounced back from failing to even start the sprint to take 11th on the grid, his team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto only just made it out in Q1 after lengthy work on his car in the garage, then lapped very slowly on the way to 22nd and last, before then limping back to the pits with his brakes on fire.
