F1 Australia, Antonelli beats Russell on Friday
It was a good start to the World Championship for Kimi Antonelli. The driver from Bologna started slowly due to some power unit configuration issues (but finishing just five thousandths behind George Russell) before moving up to second position at the end of FP2 in Melbourne, beating his more highly-rated teammate.
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Antonelli confirmed the quality of the Mercedes project, yielding only to Oscar Piastri, but he knows well that this is just the beginning. Not just of the weekend, but of an era in which drivers and teams will learn day after day.
Antonelli’s words
“Our day started in a difficult way in FP1, where we had to focus mainly on improving battery usage,” he commented after FP2. “This left us less time to work on the setup and therefore the balance of the car was not optimal, we had a lot of understeer. We worked hard between sessions and achieved much better results in FP2.”
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“I’m looking forward to the rest of the weekend,” he added. “We hope to be among the frontrunners, but everyone is learning so much in every session and every lap that today’s findings might not hold true tomorrow. It looks like it will be a tight battle between all the top teams, McLaren, Ferrari, and Red Bull are also strong. We will continue to push to the maximum to get 100% from the car and see where this takes us in qualifying and the Grand Prix.”
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