A rather chaotic Qualifying session that was a breath of fresh air for Kimi Antonelli after difficult weekends at Red Bull Ring, Silverstone, Spa and Zandvoort.
It took six red flags and almost two hours yesterday in Baku to set the grid for the Azerbaijan GP.
The rookie secured a P4, ahead of his teammate George Russell, in a weekend that had started out strong from the first free practices sessions.
“The pace has been strong the whole weekend and definitely the biggest difference has been that I was able to do clean sets and build and I felt really ready for qualifying,” he explained.
Running in difficult conditions
Strong gusts of wind and light rainfall certainly didn’t make the conditions ideal for racing around the Baku City Circuit.
“Today the conditions were very difficult with the wind, the wind was kind of a no-brainer because it was very gusty and very unpredictable.
“I’m happy but disappointed at the same time because especially in that last lap I got this gust of tailwind and I lost a couple of tenths, two or three tenths.”
Nonetheless, Antonelli can be rather satisfied with the results.
“The conditions were difficult for everyone, sometimes you could have been a bit more lucky with the wind and at times a bit more unlucky. So I cannot complain and we will do our best tomorrow.”
Keeping the focus
As we’ve seen, it was quite tricky to complete laps and crashes involved quite a few drivers – including Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris and even championship leader Oscar Piastri.
“It was raining at some point and in a track like this with all these white lines it’s very slippery. It was extremely difficult because you do something a bit over the limit for the condition and you’re in the wall. So there was literally no margin for mistake.”
Seeing so many drivers, even more drivers that are usually front-runners, end up into the wall definately has an impact on who is still on track running as well.
“I think you never like seeing someone going into the wall because it can hit a bit your mind. You see how tricky conditions are and you can also lose a bit the focus and start to be a bit concerned because you know you have no margin of mistake.
“Sometimes I prefer not to watch what happens because what can happen to me sometimes is that I go on track and I don’t push as much anymore just because I’m afraid of making mistakes. Today was super tricky but I’m happy with how we stayed calm and controlled.”
Of mistakes and reprimands
Mistakes did come for Antonelli, but he managed around it well enough to ultimately secure a good starting position for the race.
The stewards also investigated him for overtaking under a yellow flag in the opening minutes of running, an incident that could have proved costly.
In the end, they issued only a reprimand because he aborted the lap and gained no sporting advantage.
“They didn’t really show the last lap because I had two big moments. I had one in T2, one in Turn 7 I went like full lock, so I had quite a few moments.”
“I think this weekend the goal was trying to stay a bit safer on one side just trying to build and then lap by lap pushing more and more after that. Today was a bit more difficult because the session was so interrupted and it was a bit hard to get into the rhythm.”
