"Lewis Hamilton kicking himself right now": Fans react to Kimi Antonelli securing first pole of the season for Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton moved from Mercedes to Ferrari over the winter break, and he was replaced by Kimi Antonelli at the German giant. With the teenager having a comparatively better start to his 2025 campaign with Mercedes than Hamilton at Ferrari, fans jibed at the Briton after the Italian registered an eye-catching feat in the qualifying for the Miami Sprint race.

Antonelli started the Sprint Qualifying session with an impressive display of pace as he held the top spot for the majority of SQ1. Though he was unable to replicate this in SQ2 and focused on moving onto the final session, he stunned the paddock by claiming the pole position for the Sprint race in SQ3.

The 18-year-old beat Sebastian Vettel's youngest pole-sitter record in any format of F1's qualifying and showcased his and Mercedes' prowess. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton qualified seventh for the Sprint race, leading fans to take a dig at the Briton, as one wrote:

"Hamilton kicking himself rn."

"Lewis must hate this," one fan wrote.

Meanwhile, other fans raved about Antonelli's impressive feat:

"Mercedes are back. Antonelli showing levels on that grid right now ngl, another fan wrote.

"First of many he’s a generational talent," one netizen wrote.

"Wow, congrats to Kimi — what a phenomenal performance! I hope he can keep it up. What a specimen!" a fan wrote.

On the other hand, one fan talked about the possibility of Kimi Antonelli becoming the lead Mercedes driver, and wrote:

"Won’t be surprised if he becomes a better driver that george after this season," the user wrote.

On the other hand, the seven-time champion Hamilton is getting beaten by his teammate in the intra-team battle.

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Lewis Hamilton struggles to find an answer to his deficit to Charles Leclerc

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at the F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia Source: Getty

In the five race weekends held so far, Charles Leclerc has scored 50 percent more points than Lewis Hamilton. Though Hamilton clinched a Sprint win in China, he has trundled compared to his teammate in the rest of the races held so far.

Talking about how he has not been able to adapt to the Ferrari SF-25, Hamilton said (via Formula 1):

"I really don’t know. We’re working as hard as we can to shorten that but it could be longer, who knows... Obviously Charles in the last race did a fantastic job [with a P3 result] and showed what the car can do in a race, so the goal is to try to replicate that."

Meanwhile, Kimi Antonelli will be sharing the front row alongside Oscar Piastri. The Aussie driver has won three Grand Prix this year and would be looking to win his first Sprint race of the season.