Championship-leading teenager Kimi Antonelli secured pole position for the Miami Grand Prix on Saturday, posting a fastest lap of one minute 27.798 seconds to edge four-time champion Max Verstappen in a tense qualifying session.
The 19-year-old Italian is the youngest title race leader in Formula One history. His third consecutive pole puts him in company with Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher, the only other drivers to achieve the feat.
Verstappen, in his Red Bull, qualified second. Charles Leclerc was third in his Ferrari. World champion Lando Norris, who won the sprint race earlier Saturday, will start from fourth in his McLaren.
"It has been an amazing day for me to be on pole again," Antonelli said after qualifying. "I was so stressed because I was waiting for everyone to finish their laps, but it was good enough, and now, hopefully, I will have a magic start tomorrow."
He acknowledged it was not a clean session. "I got a little too excited in that last lap in Q3," he said, "but my first lap was good enough."
Mercedes teammate George Russell qualified fifth. Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, now in his first season at Ferrari, was sixth. Oscar Piastri was seventh in the second McLaren, followed by Alpine's Franco Colapinto, Isack Hadjar in the second Red Bull, and Pierre Gasly in the second Alpine.
Race organizers brought the start time forward from 4pm local time to 1pm, or 17:00 GMT, due to a forecast of extreme weather. The FIA, commercial rights holders, and local promoters issued a joint statement saying the change was made because heavier rainstorms were expected close to the originally scheduled start. The decision was taken "to prioritize the safety of drivers, fans, teams and staff," officials said.
The Miami race marks Formula One's return after a five-week break caused by the United States-Israel war on Iran, a pause several teams used to introduce upgrade packages.
