Kimi Antonelli assesses a ‘strange’ first day on track at Monza as he expects a ‘tough battle’ for pole
Kimi Antonelli has given his take on the first day of the Italian Grand Prix, with the Italian admitting that focusing specifically on long distances seemed “a bit strange” as he prepares to start from the back in Sunday’s race.
After finishing Free Practice 1 in fifth place on the timesheets – with FerrariQ of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton Set the pace – Antonelli He rose to third place during the second session of the day, which was topped by his teammate George Russell.
Commenting on his Friday run – which marked the start of the home racing weekend – the championship leader said: “It’s amazing to be here and the support has been unbelievable. Today [was] It was a slightly different day compared to the usual, more focused on the long runs.
“So, yeah, it was a little weird, I’m not going to lie, but overall it was a good day. We got a lot of data, and now we’re looking forward to the next few days.”
Antonelli will face the challenge of trying to work his way through the matter on Sunday, with Mercedes The driver is set to carry out a grid penalty due to the planned engine change.
Asked what he now expects this encounter to be like after experiencing running alongside other cars in Friday’s practice sessions, Antonelli replied: “It’s a track where you can do a lot of different things.
“It was interesting in the long run today, running behind other cars to see what they were doing differently, where they were spreading out compared to us, so it was very interesting. That’s why I think we got a lot of data and now we’re looking forward to tomorrow.”
Antonelli was also questioned about the potential threat posed by Ferrari, and noted that the Scuderia are “definitely” in the battle for pole position.
He explained: “Ferrari has definitely taken a step forward with the new engine and now the speeds remain the same, so we know how good their car is in the corners.” He added: “Therefore, it is certain that the battle for first place tomorrow will be difficult.”
Antonelli’s view that it was a “strong day” for Mercedes at Monza was echoed by deputy team principal Bradley Lord, who commented: “We had a clear program of things we wanted to try – we evaluated the different wing levels on the cars, and we got the balance of the setup in a good place.
“Kimi was more focused on race pace over the long run, a little less on the single lap. And obviously George [was focused] On both because he’s aiming for pole position tomorrow, but it’s clearly very, very close.
“I think if you look at Ferrari, they were strong in both sessions, maybe a little less in FP2 compared to FP1, but I’m sure they have more to come, so they will probably be favorites before tomorrow.”
While Russell reported a shake in the car during second practice – and Antonelli had some understeer – Lord said there were “no dramas in any way”, adding that the fact that the long race pace looked strong was “very important for Kimi coming from the back, and hopefully George racing from the front”.
Lord went on to state that Antonelli’s goal for Sunday’s Grand Prix would be to get “as many places as possible.”
“The race can fall one way and go one way or another and kind of go against it,” he explained. “We’ve had some experiences this year with VSC cars and unlucky and unlucky safety cars, so maybe we can get one back in terms of kind of spinning the wheel of karma.
“But no, I think he’s aiming to get back into solid points positions. We saw George able to do it in Hungary where overtaking was more difficult, but we don’t want to make too precise predictions about him because, yeah, let’s see what can happen.”
