Andrea Kimi Antonelli will head the field in the Miami Sprint Race. The Italian Mercedes driver was quickest in the final part of Sprint Qualifying, with the best overall time of 1’26”482 at the Miami International Autodrome. Antonelli is the 14th Italian driver to set the fastest time in a Formula 1 grid-deciding session. The last time dates back to the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix, when Giancarlo Fisichella put his Force India on pole.

THE DAY ON TRACK
In the only free practice session of the weekend, the two Racing Bulls drivers were the only ones to run the Hard to fully assess its performance, if one excludes the usual scrubbing-in lap from the Aston Martin pair. This is a clear sign that the teams aim to save the hardest compound brought here by Pirelli, for Sunday’s race.

Today’s times were considerably quicker compared to the same session last year, by around 1”4 in FP1 and 1”2 in Sprint Qualifying. Clearly, apart from the natural performance improvement from the cars, the decision to bring a range of compounds one step softer than last year’s also had a significant impact.

MARIO ISOLA – PIRELLI DIRECTOR OF MOTORSPORT
“First of all, allow me as an Italian to congratulate Kimi for this wonderful pole position. It’s the first time since Pirelli returned to Formula 1 in 2011 that one of our countrymen has topped a qualifying time sheet.

As for tyre behaviour, the Medium and Soft performed as expected, while the decision by the vast majority of the teams to save two sets of Hards clearly show that this compound will play a crucial role in the race. As we saw in Jeddah, having two sets of Hards also allows for more flexibility for the teams in the event of any potential safety car periods.

The track got quicker progressively and significantly, not just from one session to the next, but also during each session, confirming that the surface is rubbering-in considerably the more the cars run. We expect this trend to continue tomorrow.

In free practice, of course we didn’t see any real long runs aimed at Sunday’s race, with only short simulations, possibly more useful for assessing set-ups for the Sprint. As teams can work on their cars after the Sprint, the short race has increasingly become the perfect simulation session for the actual Grand Prix and that will also be the case tomorrow.”