Bahrain GP in Sepang: Kimi Antonelli back behind the wheel instead of ‘Omi Antonelli’

Instead of Granny Antonelli, Kimi Antonelli is back behind the wheel at Sepang! World Championship leader Kimi Antonelli had said, after his cautious drive to fifth place in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, that he’d driven just like his grandmother – playing it safe and focusing on simply making it to the finish line. Nevertheless, ‘Granny Antonelli’ had managed to stage a comeback from 16th on the grid (following a crash in qualifying) to finish fifth.

Ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, which is being held in Malaysia this year as a one-off, Antonelli joked that his grandmother was now back in Italy: “I booked her a flight; she’s gone home.” So he’s switching back from ‘Grandma mode’ to ‘Kimi mode’.

In Baku, Antonelli had a difficult weekend – his first of the season. In FP1, he suffered a hydraulic problem, causing him to miss large parts of the first and second practice sessions. In the first qualifying session, he then lost control of his Mercedes and hit the wall too hard. He started from 16th on the grid. He lacked the pace for a phenomenal comeback à la Monza (from 19th to 1st).

That’s why Kimi became a ‘granny’ in Baku

Antonelli explained why: “I didn’t really like not pushing to the limit. I felt a bit too slow,” he said, laughing. “But I think the realisation was that sometimes you just have to accept situations like that. You have to be content with a result. I learnt even more about myself during the race – about how I think and how I react to certain things. And it was very difficult to make the decision to simply hold back, to take as little risk as possible. Because I’d been used to just going flat out, giving it my all, all season long. In Baku, it was the first time I actually had to tell myself: ‘Listen, just take as few risks as possible, capitalise on the others’ mistakes and get to the finish safely.’ Because ultimately, it was such a chaotic weekend where simply everything went wrong. Everything went so wrong that I simply had to finish the race with a decent result so that I could carry on and focus on the next race.’ And, as mentioned, Kimi Antonelli set off on the long journey to Kuala Lumpur without the proverbial ‘granny’ approach.

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