Andrea Kimi Antonelli suffered a disastrous crash in Formula 1 qualifying in Azerbaijan. The Mercedes driver clipped the wall in Turn 1, damaging his front-left suspension and ending his session.
Luckily, his last good lap was fast enough to assure him a place in Q2, but the damage was too severe, forcing him to start 16th on the grid.
Antonelli’s frustration was palpable, and he admitted he ‘wasn’t 100% there’ in the session. His weekend has been far from smooth, with car issues disrupting his earlier practice sessions on Thursday.
“I missed three-quarters of FP1, half of FP2, so then you just don’t get in the rhythm. But then obviously I made a mistake today, so it’s both. Also my side. Definitely I wasn’t 100 percent there,” he told the media.
After the contact, Antonelli was initially desperate to fix the car and continue, communicating with the garage and his race engineer, Peter Bonnington, who told the Mercedes driver to pull the car over because the damage was too severe to continue.
“It was frustrating. I tried my best to come in, but then they told me that the damage was too big, so I had to bail out. Which is even more annoying because obviously I was hoping they could repair it. Also, because that lap would have been still okay to get through. But unfortunately it was not possible, so we will reset and move on,” he added.
The Mercedes is still the fastest car on the grid, shown by Antonelli’s teammate clinching pole position. The climb from the back of the grid to the front isn’t outside the realm of possibility for the Italian, who managed the same feat in Monza. Although it’s harder to overtake around the Baku street circuit, Antonelli’s focus is on the start and staying out of trouble.
“Good start, stay out of trouble and then try to set a really good pace. Obviously it’s going to be a bit harder than Monza because it’s a bit harder to overtake here, but I believe we can still do a good race,” he said.
Despite the difficult result, the Italian still leads the championship battle by an impressive 81 points, which keeps him comfortably ahead even after a difficult weekend.
Baca Juga
Analisis kualifikasi F1 GP Baku: Russell dominan dengan keunggulan 0,8 detik, Leclerc barisan depan, dan kesalahan Antonelli. Simak ulasan lengkapnya.
Audi bawa paket upgrade F1 paling komprehensif musim ini di GP Azerbaijan. Analisis teknis sayap depan, sidepod, dan lantai yang dirancang terpadu.
Penggemar F1 di AS bisa nonton GP Azerbaijan 2026 gratis via uji coba Apple TV. Simak cara, jadwal, dan peluang Russell dan Leclerc di Baku.
Lanjutkan dengan Google
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