MIAMI, Florida — Earlier within the day in the course of the FIA Press Convention, Mercedes Workforce Principal Toto Wolff praised his rookie driver Kimi Antonelli for “build up continually.”
As day turned to nighttime at Onerous Rock Stadium Wolff had one more reason to reward the crew’s younger driver, as Antonelli delivered a thunderous lap on the finish of Q3 to safe his first pole place, for tomorrow’s F1 Dash race.
“Congratulations to Kimi on his first Dash pole place in F1,” mentioned Wolff within the crew’s post-session media report. “It was an awesome lap in a decent session and will probably be a second he’ll always remember.
“While it’s good that we’ll begin tomorrow’s Dash from P1, a very powerful factor is the progress we’re seeing from Kimi. He continues to be taught and get higher each weekend.
“He has now topped a session, even when it got here in Dash Qualifying. It’s one other necessary milestone in his growth, and we are going to proceed to assist him to take care of this trajectory,” added Wolff.
The Mercedes boss was not the one crew member heaping reward on Antonelli. Andrew Shovlin, the crew’s Trackside Engineering Director, joined in on the enjoyable as nicely.
“It’s nice to see Kimi take a nicely deserved Dash pole! He has appeared robust from the primary lap of FP1 however clearly saved the perfect till final,” mentioned Shovlin.
Shovlin additionally paid tribute to a little bit of historical past.
“To grow to be the youngest driver to take a pole place in any format in F1 is a particular second and one he deserves to savor proper now,” continued Shovlin. “Our consideration will swiftly flip to tomorrow although with the Dash after which Qualifying for the Grand Prix later within the afternoon.”
That was not the one historical past Antonelli made on Friday. His ultimate lap in qualifying set a brand new report for the Miami Worldwide Autodrome, now in its fourth yr on the System 1 schedule.
Rounding out the reward from the crew was none apart from George Russell, who certified fifth for tomorrow’s F1 Dash race.
“Firstly, large congratulations to Kimi! I’m actually happy to see him take his first pole place,” mentioned Russell. “He’s been actually fast proper from the primary lap in FP1 and that’s actually spectacular. It’s nice for him and the entire crew; hopefully he can convert that into a robust lead to tomorrow’s Dash.”
As for the younger driver, Antonelli conceded that he didn’t anticipate such a outcome.
“I’m feeling over the moon. I didn’t anticipate it, however I used to be feeling good within the automotive,” mentioned Antonelli after qualifying to the official F1 channel.
“I used to be in a position to enhance lap by lap and discover that consistency, and that lap got here all collectively. I’m tremendous, tremendous proud of that, and now we are going to take pleasure in this second a bit of bit extra, however as nicely I wish to deal with tomorrow as a result of I actually wish to try to repeat myself.”
Antonelli will get that likelihood to repeat himself tomorrow when the lights exit for the 19-lap F1 Dash race. He’ll face a tall job to carry onto P1, as he’ll have the quick McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris beginning behind him in P2 and P3, respectively.
Nonetheless, the younger driver has already made some historical past right here in Miami, and the weekend is simply getting began.
