Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli secured a P10 finish at the F1 Hungarian GP on Sunday. It’s only his second points finish in the last 8 rounds. The other was his maiden podium in Canada.
A point that was hard-earned for Kimi Antonelli in F1 Hungarian GP
From P15 on the grid, Antonelli passed Colapinto and Hamilton on the opening lap to move up two spots. He would get stuck in a DRS train behind Ollie Bearman before stopping for hards at the end of lap 21.
The Italian driver went on to do a 48-lap stint on hards. Thanks to that early stop, he undercut Hadjar, managing to fend him off in the closing stages. A critical move on Carlos Sainz during his hard stint was key to P10 as well.
Speaking in the print media pen, the 18-year-old explained just how tough it was to get that last point.
“Well, I think the hardest is still Canada, but this was very close, I think.
“It was a very long stint, definitely was not the plan to do such a long stint on the tyres, but it was just really hard to get out of the situation, being in a DRS train.
“And the tyres were getting quite a big hit, especially in dirty air.
“It was difficult, but happy that I managed to hold on.
“Actually the pace in free air was pretty decent, so now we just need to start further forward, because I think the potential is there, and I think it was a real shame yesterday not to show that the feeling was back.
“I just need to understand what happened with the tyres, and why I just had no real grip.”
Encouraged by tyre management
Explaining how he believes his race pace has been stronger than his qualifying speed in 2025, Antonelli outlined his happiness with the way he looked after his tyres.
With Isack Hadjar on 12-lap fresher hard tyres and Lewis Hamilton on 21-lap younger mediums, he had to push to the end on very old tyres to keep P10.
“I think the race pace has always been strong, I think it’s been my strongest point this year.
“But I think today was a really good lesson on tyre management as well, because I had to manage tyres but still keep the pace up, because obviously I had Hadjar behind and Lewis coming up with much fresher tyres. And I still had to keep the pace high in order to keep them behind.
“It was tough, but we learned.”
Kimi Antonelli happier with the car during F1 Hungarian GP weekend
Mercedes returned to their old rear suspension for the Hungarian round, and it made both drivers feel more confident in the car.
From FP1, the young Italian was a lot more competitive versus his teammate and the rest of the field. He outpaced George Russell in the first and third practice sessions.
In Q1, he was 0.155s slower than the Brit. However, a very messy lap at the end of Q2 saw that gap expand to a massive 0.492s. It had put him only P11, but he lost the time because of track limits out of the final corner.
It left him well out of position on 15th, but he did manage to recover to P10. The qualifying error left him pondering what was possible with a better grid spot.
“Yes, I think the feeling was back.
“And this weekend was actually pretty strong, because we were up there every session, and again yesterday I was very frustrated, because I felt I could have had a shot to fight there at the front.
“But now I’ll just go to the summer break, look back at things, what went well and what went wrong.
“And I’m going to rest, train and then come back fitter and stronger.”
