World Championship leader Kimi Antonelli still makes it onto the podium after an unfortunate qualifying session the day before—but why his first stint prevented a potential victory
Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli wanted to make amends in the race after a frustrating Saturday, when the 19-year-old had to abort his final qualifying attempt due to a yellow flag following Max Verstappen’s crash. But the Italian approached the task far too aggressively.
“Yes, I was probably a little too overmotivated in the first few laps and definitely didn’t drive well; I made too many mistakes,” the championship leader admitted self-critically. Antonelli ran wide twice on the very first lap, with a third incident occurring at the start of the second lap.
“I think he was desperate to seal the win in the very first laps, and that cost him dearly,” said team principal Toto Wolff in an interview with Sky UK. “But I liked that enthusiasm; he just goes all out—up the hill, where he probably hit the brakes 30 meters too late.”
“And the same thing further down the track. That’s exactly how it should be,” the Austrian offered no criticism of his young driver; on the contrary: “We want a driver who’s constantly on the attack, because you can’t make a donkey sprint, but you can rein in a racehorse.”
Kimi Antonelli loses “three or four seconds”
After the race, however, Antonelli had to admit his mistake stemming from his overconfident start: “In the first stint on the medium tires alone, I lost three or four seconds due to mistakes, partly because I had problems with the brakes,” reports the Mercedes driver, who started the race from fourth on the grid.
“I had problems with the brakes. There was an imbalance in the braking setup, and I struggled to attack the braking zones aggressively,” the 19-year-old added on Sky UK. “I really had to fight at the start and made a few mistakes.”
“But in the second stint, I basically regrouped. The third stint was really strong, but I just got into my rhythm a little too late.” After the start, the Mercedes youngster was initially stuck in fifth place behind Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc.
Although the Italian was able to pass his rival after just a few laps, the top three had already pulled away by a few seconds at that point. “He simply lost the positions that might have made the difference in winning the race,” said Toto Wolff on Sky.
“George Russell obviously managed the race well at the end,” the Austrian emphasized. “But the decisive factor was Kimi Antonelli’s first stint. After that, he had the pace—especially on the tires as they got hotter and wear increased.”
Toto Wolff certain: Antonelli’s victory was “definitely” possible
“He definitely could have fought for the win,” the Mercedes team principal is convinced. Although Antonelli finished less than two seconds behind his teammate, Wolff also points out: “George had the situation at the front under control at all times and was able to manage his race accordingly.”
The gap to Max Verstappen in the Red Bull was even smaller, at just 0.375 seconds. “With two, three, or four more laps, it would have gotten really exciting,” Antonelli says, frustrated that he narrowly missed second place.
“But of course, congratulations to George and Max—they had a really strong weekend,” says the Mercedes driver, adding self-critically: “Things have improved a lot on my end, but I still need to minimize my mistakes even further. I think this weekend was very instructive for me.“
”After getting off to such a strong start to the weekend, I probably lost my rhythm a bit,“ Antonelli says in retrospect. ”Maybe I relaxed a little too much or was too confident. But it was definitely an important lesson, and we’ll come back stronger at Silverstone.”
