Antonelli, tears of joy
The drought has ended: an Italian driver returns to winning an F1 GP after 20 years. Credit goes to Kimi Antonelli, a young talent who triumphs like a champion today in Shanghai. A dominated race, made easier by yesterday’s pole position and also favored by those Ferraris standing between him and George Russell. Antonelli, however, sets a top-level pace and, after overtaking Lewis Hamilton (who once again started like a rocket), remains unfazed even with the Safety Car on lap 10 and a difficult warm-up of the hard tire at the restart.
Antonelli’s words
On the hards, Kimi is almost perfect and watches the battle between Hamilton, Leclerc, and Russell from his mirrors, which naturally works to his advantage and allows him to create a very useful cushion. That gap is worth its weight in gold, as he realized with the mistake at the hairpin on the third-to-last lap: “I sh*t myself,” he would admit to Stefano Domenicali.
In a cooler moment, after letting it all out with very justified tears, Antonelli analyzes his first F1 victory: “I dreamed of exactly this, that there would be an opportunity. I am over the moon, I am so happy, and this victory feels great. I definitely liked the start, because all the previous ones had been terrible: it’s true that I lost the position to Lewis, but the launch wasn’t bad and the pace was good,” this was his comment to Sky Sport F1. “With the mediums I was managing a lot, George had a slightly faster pace, but with the hards I was going strong. In the end, however, I relaxed too much and made a mistake, I shouldn’t do that again.”
Read more Hamilton: “Great battle with Leclerc, a privilege to be on the podium together with Kimi”
“On the hards, excluding the first few laps, I felt good. We struggled tremendously to warm up the tires compared to Ferrari, but I felt I had the situation under control and I always stayed calm,” he added. “It was really nice, I have to dedicate it to my family, my team, and everyone following me from home. I definitely managed to achieve one of my main goals. This gives me more confidence. I will have a slightly different approach, I will be a bit more relaxed, more aware of my potential, but beating George and the others won’t be easy. I will have to keep ‘hammering’ away, today went well but we are only at the beginning.”
