Kimi Antonelli will line up seventh on the grid for the F1 US GP. The rookie delivered a solid performance in the Qualifying session turning the weekend around. On Friday, Antonelli found himself 11th in Sprint Qualifying. After a messy session, the Sprint race gained him one point as a result of Ollie Bearman receiving a 10 second penalty.
Cooling vest issues and messy Qualifying
The rookie Mercedes driver is taking on the challenge of Circuit of The Americas for the first time. In the written media pen, he was asked if there was a struggle getting up to speed and performing where he wants to be.
“Yesterday FP1 was a bit affected with the cooling vest. I had an issue with the system and didn’t feel well in the car. I struggled a little bit, but today I think was pretty decent.
“Q3 was a bit scrappy. In Lap one I need to see what happened, but I don’t know if with the bump I did a double press with the DRS, but I did the whole first straight without DRS, so I lost a couple of tenths. And then the last lap I just couldn’t get the front working. I had a lot of understeer throughout the whole lap and struggled to improve,” Antonelli responded.
Earlier this weekend at the F1 US GP, Kimi Antonelli revealed that the cooling vest failure resulted in it warming him up instead of cooling him down. Come Qualifying the rookie was able to deliver a solid performance without running into similar issues. If he has a good launch off the line and fights his way through the field, Antonelli can battle his way to a strong end of the weekend.
Hopeful for the race
Even though the rookie started 11th on the grid, avoiding the chaos at the start was immensely beneficial for him. The Italian ended the Sprint in P8, and grabbing one point for the team while teammate, George Russell, finished P2. Additionally, Antonelli was asked if the Sprint was encouraging as he made good progress in the race.
“We need to stay out of trouble for sure. We say today how chaotic it can be so I’m going to try to read well the situation at the start and try to place the car in the best way as possible and hopefully we can gain a few places and then set a good pace.“
He continued on to be asked what would be possible in the Grand Prix, in which he remained positive despite admitting the pace is not up to par.
“Hopefully top five, that will be good. We’re not as quick as Singapore, that’s for sure. It’s been a bit tougher, but we’ll try to do the best race as possible.” Antonelli stated.
The Singapore GP weekend saw George Russell storming to the win while Antonelli ended the race P5. The team will hope to maximise their performance at COTA despite the track not being as suitable as Singapore for them.
