Antonelli getting a wake-up call in Zandvoort amid Russell rebound

Kimi Antonelli says the way his Dutch Grand Prix weekend has gone so far has been a wake-up call, after finishing behind Mercedes teammate George Russell in every competitive session so far.

The championship leader extended his advantage over Lewis Hamilton to 53 points courtesy of a fourth place in the Sprint, but Russell won to take three points out of his own deficit to his teammate. Antonelli had been hampered by damage suffered by running wide early in Sprint qualifying, but then felt he didn’t maximize his final Q3 run on Saturday and will start one place behind Russell again in the grand prix itself.

“I don’t feel any extra pressure,” Antonelli said. “But it was a very good wake-up call this weekend, that you can never lower your guard because when you do that… I did a mistake yesterday and today I did a mistake in Q3.

“So, it’s not that I’m driving more tense or anything, but I just feel this weekend is a good wake-up call, and to just again [ensure I] put things in the right place at the right time and deliver the result when it counts.”

Explaining where he felt he underperformed in qualifying, Antonelli says he was overly cautious as light rain started to fall late in Q3.

“It was a difficult session for me overall. I always found myself on the back foot, and then the last lap, did a mistake in Turn 1, lost a couple of tenths," he said. "It was my mistake and a shame for that because we had a real shot for pole.

“I was just struggling with the balance, to be fair, throughout the whole session. Mainly Sector 3, I was struggling in the chicane. And then just made a couple of changes and the feeling came back.

“But obviously, in the last lap I did a mistake in Sector 1. I took it a bit too easy seeing the rain on the visor and it just was a really poor Sector 1. And that was a shame because I think we had a shot for pole, but still starting P3 tomorrow and all to play for.

“In FP1 I felt very good. Then obviously yesterday in [Sprint] qualifying I made a mistake, and that definitely took some confidence away. Also, today in qualifying, mainly because the feeling was not really there with the car, I still struggled to find my rhythm and to put the lap times together. But luckily in Q3 we were able to put things a bit more together and to be on the second row.”