Final trick
Everything seemed ready to celebrate another special day, but for once Andrea Kimi Antonelli had to hold back the scream of joy in his throat. In the qualifying for the Spanish GP, the Italian was one step away from securing pole position, but by 11 thousandths his time was beaten by a fantastic Lando Norris, who reached his third pole position start in the last four races.
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Speaking to David Coulthard at the end of the session, it was Antonelli himself who admitted to having for a moment imagined he had achieved the day’s goal; but then the reigning world champion arrived who completed – by his own admission – “one of the best laps” of his career. “I thought I had done a good lap – Antonelli sincerely admitted – but then he [referring to Norris] snatched it from me right at the end. Anyway, congratulations to them“.
Watch out for the first corner
Antonelli still has many reasons to smile: in all the support races (F2 and F3) held so far, those who started from second position have always beaten the poleman in the sprint to turn 1. If that were not enough, Antonelli’s main rivals for the championship are all behind: Lewis Hamilton will start in fourth position, George Russell even in sixth.
“It was a very intense qualifying – Antonelli commented – finding the right balance was difficult due to the high track temperatures, but the lap was quite clean. Obviously it is not easy to put everything in place on such a tricky track, but overall I think we did a good job; we will see what we can do tomorrow”.
Read more Norris shocked by himself: “One of the best laps of my career”
