Formula 1 champion Kimi Antonelli: “I nearly went off the track at Turn 5!”

The GP stars had to be very patient during qualifying at Interlagos. The Brazilian weather gods were not on their side. No sooner had qualifying begun than the rain set in. It was so heavy that the red flags were waved after just two minutes. The enforced break lasted more than an hour and 20 minutes.

When proceedings finally resumed, the Formula 1 drivers still had to take to the track on wet tyres. It was only towards the end of the second segment that conditions allowed for fast laps on the intermediates. Those who decided to switch tyres early were rewarded, as conditions deteriorated once again. Some GP stars were caught off guard.

Kimi Antonelli: Only tenth fastest in Q2

Kimi Antonelli, on the other hand, was lucky in his misfortune. He made it through to Q3 with the tenth-fastest lap. In the final session, he was warned that conditions would likely only allow for one fast lap before the rain intensified again. The new Formula 1 World Champion headed out and had a moment of panic at the fifth corner.

In the end, he set the third-fastest lap time of 1:28.095 minutes, whilst pole-sitter Lando Norris and his Mercedes team-mate George Russell managed to lap the 3.409 km circuit faster. Nevertheless, Antonelli will start from second place – and thus from the front row – as his team-mate must drop back five places due to the use of new engine components that exceed the permitted allocation.

Kimi Antonelli did not have a flawless run in the third qualifying segment

Antonelli said after qualifying: “It was very, very tricky today. To be honest, I didn’t really know what to expect, as this was my first time driving on a wet track here. So I didn’t know what was in store for me.”

Topic of the week

World Champion Kimi Antonelli: record-breaker, heart-breaker, the Tifosi’s dream

With his third-place finish at the Mexican Grand Prix, Kimi Antonelli has become the youngest of the 36 Formula 1 world champions to date. The 20-year-old Italian is on a record-breaking run. The Tifosi are dreaming of Antonelli in a Ferrari.

Mathias Brunner

Read More

TV Program

Tomorrow

Sao Paulo: Das Rennen

FIA Formula One World Championship

08.11.2026 - 17:10

And the driver from Bologna admitted: “I struggled a bit on the intermediates, and I nearly went off at Turn 5 because I made a big mistake. I simply didn’t do a good job. But it was enough to snatch third place. Now the focus is entirely on the race.”

The 20-year-old Italian didn’t want to make any predictions for the 20th World Championship round: “We’ll have to wait and see what the weather does first. But of course we’ll prepare for every eventuality, and if it does get wet, we now have a much better idea of what we need to do. We’ll have to wait and see – so far, the weather has been very unpredictable.”