Kimi Antonelli: Everything turned out to be very successful!

      In Miami, Kimi Antonelli, an 18-year-old Mercedes driver, surprised everyone by winning the sprint qualification and setting a new lap record at the same time. George Russell showed only the fifth time this time and was clearly unhappy with himself.

      Kimi Antonelli (1st): "Qualifying was stressful, but I felt comfortable driving in the morning, so I was very confident before qualifying.

      In the final attempt in the final session, I did a really good lap, I managed to put everything together – everything worked out somehow very well, and I am very happy that I won my first pole.

      In general, I'm glad that I'm starting from the front row in tomorrow's sprint, and I'm already looking forward to this moment. Let's see what we can achieve in the short race on Saturday, as well as in the main qualifying of the weekend."

      George Russell (5th): "Congratulations to Kimi, I am very happy to see that he has achieved success. He did a great job, was very fast all day and did a really impressive lap.

      But today I was plagued by certain difficulties, I lacked a bit of pace, and it was not so comfortable to drive. So we just wanted to get on the track early and start trying, thinking that if yellow or red flags suddenly appeared on the track at the end of qualifying, then we would be in a good position.

      In general, 5th time is not the best result, we have to perform better in order to achieve more. But Kimi really pleased the team."