Fast despite hydraulic failure: will we see another Kimi Antonelli show in Baku?

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli missed much of the first day of practice in Baku due to hydraulic problems. Nevertheless, the championship leader finished second in FP2, just three tenths of a second behind his team-mate George Russell. Both Silver Arrows left the competition trailing behind them. Will we see the next Kimi Antonelli show at the Grand Prix on Saturday (note: one day earlier than usual!)?

Antonelli lent a hand

In the first practice session, Antonelli had to pull over at the emergency exit around the halfway point due to a problem. The 20-year-old spontaneously stepped in as a marshal, actively helping to push his car off the track. Time was of the essence – as Antonelli had missed the first half of FP1 – and the repairs would take some time.

The diagnosis: hydraulic problems. As a precaution, Mercedes swapped the engine, fitting a different power unit from the pool, and will check the FP1 engine – in all likelihood, they’ll be able to use it again. This means Antonelli shouldn’t face any further engine penalties (he’d last picked one up at Monza).

Antonelli’s crew worked swiftly on the car, and by around the halfway point of FP2, the Italian was back on the track. But, of course, compared to the competition, he was lacking quite a bit of track time and had completed far fewer laps.

Antonelli’s summary on Thursday evening was accordingly: “It was a frustrating day, because due to the problems we had, we lost a lot of laps in the first practice session and half of the second. That’s never ideal, of course. But overall, I felt quite good in the car during the laps I did complete, even though there’s obviously still a lot of work ahead of us.”

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Cause still unclear

Investigations into the hydraulic problems are still ongoing, as Antonelli revealed: “We’re still trying to find out what caused it. It came as something of a surprise. But I’m sure the team is doing its best to identify the cause, and now, of course, for safety reasons we have to replace the power unit, and then it should be fine tomorrow.”

Mercedes management: Not representative!

At Mercedes, however, they are keeping a low profile despite the convincing results. George Russell was eight-tenths of a second ahead of Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing). Bradley Lord, who is standing in for the absent team principal Toto Wolff during the Baku weekend, said: “These gaps aren’t representative. You shouldn’t read too much into them. We did more timed laps on the soft tyres. The lap times kept improving and we did one more lap than the others, so we probably got more out of the tyres and the track than the others.”

Regarding the repairs to Antonelli’s car, Lord said: “Of course, he’s lost a bit of track time. But the mechanics did a brilliant job too. The car came back a quarter of an hour after the session and they were ready to go out again by the time the red flag came out. So we got as much as possible out of the session.”

And just how much the practice times are really worth will become clear on Friday during qualifying. We’ll be live-ticking from 1.30 pm. Qualifying itself starts at 2 pm.