Chinese Saturday started immediately uphill for Andrea Kimi Antonelli, from the early stages of the Sprint race until the checkered flag of the latter, lasting 19 laps. The Mercedes driver, who started from the second spot on the starting grid, was indeed the protagonist of an error at the start, with the Bolognese’s single-seater remaining almost completely stationary. An episode that thus allowed his pursuers to overtake him easily, with the #12 consequently forced to start a furious comeback.
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Precisely in an attempt to climb back as quickly as possible into the upper areas of the standings already during the first lap, Antonelli also came into contact with Hadjar’s Red Bull after an overtake on the inside of turn 6. A maneuver sanctioned by Race Direction, which imposed a 10-second penalty on him. Having returned to the pits to serve it under Safety Car conditions after the retirement of Nico Hülkenberg’s Audi, the Sprint nevertheless ended in 5th place.
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Interviewed by Sky Sport at the end of the race, Antonelli explained what went wrong at the start, finally acknowledging that he made a mistake in the maneuver on Hadjar: “The turbo was missing, it wasn’t ready at the start and I had to first of all release the clutch less – he commented – I had to make it slip much more because otherwise I risked stalling, but I have to see what happened especially with the procedure, because it seems that something went wrong. I compromised my race, and with Isack it was my fault. The pace was decent, but with the 10 seconds it was a mess.”
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