Formulation 1 qualifying on the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was crashfest with many pink flags, however Andrea Kimi Antonelli stored his cool with a surprisingly good qualifying efficiency.
After a troublesome European leg, the younger Italian secured fourth place on the Baku grid – a great addition to his confidence.
“The tempo has been sturdy the entire weekend, and undoubtedly the most important distinction has been that I used to be capable of do clear classes and to construct it up. I felt fairly prepared for qualifying,” Antonelli stated.
The Mercedes rookie stayed out of bother, despite the fact that he needed to go to the stewards for allegedly ignoring yellow flags throughout qualifying. That was dealt with with a reprimand, which means Antonelli will begin from fourth on the grid. It equals his greatest qualifying consequence up to now for a grand prix, though the 19-year-old beforehand took pole for the dash race in Miami.
With fourth place in qualifying for the primary occasion, Antonelli matched his efficiency from Bahrain and Canada – however this time he has outqualified team-mate George Russell.
Regardless of all these positives, Antonelli made clear that qualifying was removed from simple: “The situations had been very troublesome with the wind. The wind was sort of a lottery as a result of it was very gusty and really unpredictable.”
Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli
Picture by: Ozan Kose / AFP by way of Getty Pictures
Antonelli wasn't even fully glad when he appeared within the media pen. “I am joyful however disillusioned on the similar time, as a result of in that final lap, I received a gust of tailwind and misplaced a few tenths – two or three tenths,” he lamented.
“However the situations had been troublesome for everybody. Typically you get a bit fortunate with the wind and different occasions a bit unfortunate, so I can not actually complain.”
When identified that he did not make any main errors, the Mercedes driver laughed: “Properly, that is as a result of they did not actually present my final lap! I had two huge moments, one in T2 and one in Flip 7. I went full lock. I had fairly a number of moments, however this weekend the purpose was to remain on the secure aspect a bit extra, simply attempting to construct it after which push extra lap by lap.”
Apart from the situations, one other issue made qualifying in Baku extraordinarily difficult: the psychological aspect of issues.
All drivers in Baku had been confronted with the query: how a lot danger are you prepared to take? With a number of vehicles out, a powerful consequence was inside attain, however these accidents did present how simply issues can go improper within the streets of Baku.
When requested about that psychological aspect of issues by Autosport, Antonelli admitted candidly that this performed an necessary position throughout his qualifying session: “You by no means like seeing somebody going into the wall, as a result of it will possibly hit your thoughts a bit. You see how difficult the situations are, and you'll lose a little bit of focus and begin to be involved, as a result of you understand you haven't any margin for errors.”
This is the reason Antonelli generally prefers to not comply with every part that occurs very carefully. “Typically I desire to not watch,” he conceded. “What can occur to me generally is that I'm going on monitor and I do not push as a lot anymore simply because I am afraid of doing errors. So, at the moment was tremendous difficult, however I'm pleased with how we stayed calm and composed.”
