Kimi Antonelli laments a mistake at the start of the F1 Mexico City GP, which cost him a position and led to a disappointing result for the young Italian despite strong pace.
Antonelli headed into the Mexico City GP from P6 on the grid. Unfortunately for him, Antonelli lost position to the Haas of Ollie Bearman, locking the rear and going straight in Turn 1. This mistake left the Italian behind the Haas driver for much of the race.
After the first round of pit stops, Mercedes opted to invert the positions of their drivers to give Russell a chance to chase and potentially overtake Bearman. The Brit failed to overtake the Haas, and the position was given back to him later in the Grand Prix.
Back to running in P6, Antonelli served his second pit stop on Lap 47 of the F1 Mexico City GP, but a slow pit stop saw him lose position to the McLaren of Oscar Piastri. Antonelli thus finished the race in P6 after the teammate swap, where he started.
Antonelli disappointed with P6 finish
In his post-race interview, Antonelli noted that his P6 finish was ‘a little bit disappointing’ as he pointed to his mistake at the start, which led to the Mercedes driver experiencing a ‘very tough race’.
“Yeah, obviously P6. A little bit disappointing. At the start, I did a mistake.
“I locked the rear into Turn 1 and then went straight and lost the position to Ollie [Bearman]. But then, it was a very tough race. We were all in the train and we were all very close to each other.
“We tried something with the team to switch positions, which unfortunately didn’t work.
“I mean, it’s what it is. Now we try to move forward.”
Positives from the Mexico City GP
Even though the result was disappointing, Antonelli found a positive takeaway from the Mexico City GP. The Mercedes rookie points to the steps made in terms of qualifying and race pace as the main positive takeaways from the Mexico City GP weekend.
Antonelli’s focus now is on the upcoming race in Brazil, where he hopes to ‘do better’.
“I think it was a step forward in terms of pace.
“I think, qualy pace was again a step forward, and race pace felt quite strong. So, definitely, you know, positives to take away.
“And now we’ll try to focus and do better in Brazil.”
