Kimi Antonelli: “Drove like my grandmother”, a challenge to Russell

After a difficult qualifying session on Friday, Kimi Antonelli still managed to fight his way bravely up the field in Saturday’s Grand Prix. Starting from 16th on the grid, he moved up to 5th place, securing ten points for the World Championship standings. Following his spectacular comeback at Monza – where he started from an even worse position (P19) to claim victory – expectations were naturally high that the championship leader would repeat the feat.

Antonelli in damage-limitation mode

Kimi Antonelli explained afterwards why it wasn’t quite enough this time: “I drove a bit like my grandmother today. Simply in damage-limitation mode. I didn’t take any risks. Before I attempted any manoeuvre, I made sure I could actually pull it off.”

Approach changed overnight

The day before, he’d sounded quite different – namely, in battle mode. But overnight, Antonelli changed his approach. The World Championship leader said: “If I’d had the pace, it would have turned out differently. If I’d had the same pace as at Monza or in the previous races, it would have turned out differently. Then I’d simply have gone all out. But today it became clear to me very early on that it was much harder to overtake with a pack of cars that were all in overtaking mode. And then I didn’t have the same pace as before. And when you see so many people making mistakes, you hold back a bit. Because today I simply capitalised on the others’ mistakes and worked my way up the field.”

On top of that, there was damage to the car after the restart. Antonelli, too, had been caught up in the mass crash, primarily caused by Colapinto: “I ended up with damage to the underbody. My entire left-hand side was gone. After that, the car was very unpredictable to drive. I still tried to get into fourth place, but all in all, it’s one of those days when you have to be satisfied with fifth place.”

Crash happened right in front of Antonelli

Antonelli only just managed to avoid the accident: “I saw the Alpine start to spin and slowed down immediately. I’d just been preparing for the corner, but then I didn’t see that Ollie (Bearman, ed.) was coming up so fast from the inside. Of course, I had to swerve because I was still very close to the Alpine. I was lucky to get away with it. Not lucky enough to come through unscathed, but all in all, it was fine.”

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A challenge to Russell

Antonelli’s team-mate George Russell won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. It was his third victory of the season. Antonelli lost his 15-point lead in the World Championship standings. However, he issued a clear challenge to Russell: “I’ll make sure I restore the pecking order next week. And I’ll make sure I get back to my usual standard. Because this weekend I was driving more like my granny. So it wasn’t the Kimi we’re used to. But luckily the next race is just around the corner, and I’m really looking forward to it.”