Kimi Antonelli took pole position for the Miami Grand Prix with a strong lap, but only by narrowly beating a resurgent Max Verstappen and Red Bull into second place.

Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were in third and sixth for Ferrari, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in fourth and seventh for McLaren, while Antonelli’s Mercedes teammate George Russell could manage only fifth, four-10ths back from the Italian.

Antonelli, who leads the world championship by seven points from Russell, claimed his third straight pole, reasserting Mercedes’ pace at the front of the field which had looked to be genuinely under threat over the weekend in Miami. Not least when Norris and Piastri took a dominant one-two in the sprint race earlier on Saturday at the Hard Rock stadium.

With Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren all bringing major upgrades to Miami, it had appeared they had at least caught Mercedes, who are not employing any substantial developments until the next round in Canada.

Russell had described the advances made by his team’s rivals as “daunting” and the Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff conceded after the sprint that they had made up little ground in Miami but that a fierce development fight remained ahead.

“We know that we are a little out of sync with our upgrades compared to other teams. We were hoping we were going to be able to hold on to our advantage, and in terms of pure lap times, we were close to the pace at the front in the Sprint,” he said. “This season is going to be a pure development race and whoever brings a few tenths before their competitors will gain an advantage.”

However, when it mattered over the single lap, Antonelli still enjoyed the advantage and delivered with a fine piece of controlled driving where he just had the edge over Verstappen, who was genuinely enjoying the handling and performance of his car for the first time this season as Red Bull’s upgrades had clearly delivered.

McLaren and Ferrari were closer to Antonelli but they remained three-10ths back. Russell, in turn, will be concerned he could not get closer to his teenage teammate who has won two of the past three races.

The leaders were closely matched going into the final laps in Q3 and Piastri and Norris opened early to set the benchmark times. Norris was on top with a 1 minute 28.183-second lap but they were swiftly surpassed by Verstappen and then Leclerc. Antonelli, however, had more still to come, with a huge final sector he put a full three-10ths on Leclerc with a 1min 27.798sec, while Russell could manage only fifth.

On the final hot runs, Antonelli did not improve but nor did the opposition with the exception of Verstappen who pushed hard to claim second from Antonelli by just over a 10th and a half. The Italian had pole but Verstappen had comfortably enjoyed his best qualifying of the season to secure a front-row spot.

The timing of Sunday’s race, however, remains subject to some debate. It is due to start at 4pm but local weather forecasters are still predicting a high likelihood of thunderstorms hitting the circuit in the afternoon. The US national weather service advises that sporting events should be stopped if there is an incidence of thunder and lightning within six to 10 miles.

The FIA is meeting with F1’s key stakeholders on Saturday afternoon after qualifying to discuss making contingency plans, including bringing the start time forward by several hours. The current forecast warns of “widespread rain showers and embedded thunderstorms” on Sunday afternoon.