Formula One: Miami GP race updates as storms threaten disruption – live

“We made a mistake and we respect the stewards’ decision,” said team principal, Laurent Mekies, in a statement.

“No advantage was sought or gained from this error. We will learn from this mistake and review our procedures to understand how it happened and ensure it does not happen again.”

Hadjar, 21, is therefore relegated to the back of the grid in 22nd spot.

A reminder that the start time for this race was brought forward three hours to 1pm ET/6pm BST because of the threat of heavy storms. Outdoor sports events in Florida must be stopped if there’s a lightning strike within an eight-mile radius of the venue and can’t restart until there’s been no thunder of lighting for 30 minutes, which means we could be in for a little disruption this afternoon. There was heavy rain earlier this morning and it’s dry now, but the storms are forecast to return around 1pm … which also happens to be the start of the race.

Tom will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s how qualifying went down:

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.

After the session had finished, the FIA, F1 and the Miami promoter issued a joint statement announcing the start of Sunday’s race had been brought forward from 4pm to 1pm local time – 6pm BST – because of heavy thunderstorms forecast for the afternoon.

On the track 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 that 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.

You can read the full report below:

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