Antonelli learns lessons in 'worst weekend by far'

Formula 1 championship leader Kimi Antonelli said his “worst weekend by far of the season” taught him a lesson about keeping himself focused as the championship battle heads into its decisive phase.

Antonelli’s lead was slashed from 81 points to 66 as teammate George Russell romped to victory in Baku while he went from 16th on the grid to fifth, at one stage narrowly avoiding a collision at the first safety car restart that could have wiped him out of the race.

The qualifying crash that set the tone for his weekend followed a difficult practice session in which he lost more than half his track time to a hydraulics problem in FP1 and then an engine change in FP2, leaving him down on seat time at the confidence-critical Baku street circuit.

The 20-year-old Italian, who has hitherto been mistake-free this season, said his tough Azerbaijan outing has come at the right time to reset his focus.

“I think this weekend taught me a lot, and I think on many occasions this weekend I just probably also with the mindset was not in the best place,” he said.

“I’ll just make sure that next weekend we get back at the right level.”

Despite lamenting a slip from his usual high standards, he was satisfied to walk away from the race with 10 points and a still healthy 66-point advantage with eight rounds remaining.

“I think it’s one of those days where you have to be happy with P5,” he said. “Obviously it was the worst weekend by far of the season.

“I felt always a step behind, and especially with the mistake in qualifying, the confidence level was not high.

“Today was about damage limitation, especially because I didn’t have a strong pace, and also after the safety car restart I was carrying big floor damage, so it was not easy out there, but I just did my best.”

Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord was more effusive, describing the result as the best Antonelli could have achieved.

“It was important not to come into the race thinking this is going to be Monza 2.0,” he said, referring to Antonelli’s back-to-front victory in Italy earlier this month.

“I think he drove the race that was in front of him really well. He actually came out of lap 1 in P17, so to finish up P5 … showed a really good grasp of the big picture today.

“I think to get back to P5, not to make any mistakes as well — and that was a big part of it — was a really, really strong drive and a very good sign for the races to come.

“It was the drive of someone who understood the big picture at each point of the race, and to get back to P5 — damage limitation from P17, as he was running after the first lap — was I think at the upper end of the optimistic predictions we had in the morning strategy meeting.”