Antonelli proud of P4 on F1 debut after 'the possible worst conditions'

On Saturday, Antonelli was not able to progress beyond Q1 in qualifying. It was later discovered that he had a broken front bib, which caused him to lose time on the straights. While points were not something it seemed Antonelli would be able to get, he did in fact end up bringing some home. Antonelli crossed the finish line in fourth place on his debut race where the conditions were suboptimal. He reflected to the media, "I think today we got all the possible worst conditions for a first race."

"I mean we got wet, slicks on damp, slicks on wet and then back to wet. So definitely a really really eventful race but really happy how it was managed from my side and from the team."

He added, "Of course, I did a couple of mistakes, especially the spin, but the conditions were super, super tricky. Also, those white lines were a killer.  I’m really happy. The team really helped me throughout the whole race and made all the right calls and I definitely cannot complain about today."

Mercedes' right call

During the last few laps of the race, the rain suddenly started up again. While Antonelli wanted to take a gamble and stay out, he did come in after talking to his team. "I wanted to stay out for one more lap because it felt like at the end only sector 3 was wet, but you know the rest of the track was dry, but it was good to stay on the safer side, because it started to rain quite heavily. I think staying out one more lap maybe could have worked, but it was good to come in and that the team did great. Definitely, that was the right call." 

This article was written in collaboration with Kim Hoefnagel.

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