Antonelli writes history
Kimi Antonelli had just turned two when Giancarlo Fisichella took pole position in the Belgian GP on August 30, 2009. We had to wait for the growth and explosion of this talented and hungry boy from Bologna to return to the front of everyone, at least on Saturday.
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Now that he occupies this place in the sun, Kimi doesn’t want to let go and isn’t satisfied: the goal is now to bring the tricolor back to the top step of the podium after 20 years. The chance is tempting, because Antonelli will start ahead of everyone, but he must fix the start. Too many uncertainties between Melbourne and tonight’s Sprint, combined with the presence of George Russell and the Ferraris, will not let the Bolognese sleep peacefully. But it will be a sweet anxiety.
Antonelli’s words
“It was a pretty clean session, I’m really very happy. Obviously I know George had a problem in Q3, it would have been nice to see him with two sets of tires as well, but I think it was a very good session, clean and without errors. I can’t wait to start the race tomorrow”, this was his immediate comment.
“I managed to improve every time I went on track. I struggled a bit with the balance, I had a lot of understeer since Q2. I even asked the team if there was something broken in the car. Even in Q3 it wasn’t easy, but I managed to put the lap together and I’ll start first”, he added to Sky Sport F1. “I’ll enjoy it a little bit, but not too much, because the focus is already towards the race. It’s nice to take pole, but you have to finish well. I’m aware of tomorrow’s opportunity, it would be really nice to be able to bring Italy back to the top step of the podium”.
“The pace is good, because even in the Sprint I recovered well, but the start was a weak point. This morning I saw what went wrong, tomorrow I will try not to complicate things too much. I will try to execute the procedure correctly, warming up the tire well”, he concluded. “I managed to start again from the mistakes, like in Melbourne. This morning was a very difficult race, full of chaos and errors, this result is the best way to end the day. I certainly like making life difficult for myself, but I’m happy with how I managed to handle the session”.
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