Formula 1 championship leader Kimi Antonelli was left frustrated by his horrible start to the Austrian Grand Prix as he went off three times across the opening two laps.
The Mercedes driver started fourth and carried a lot of speed into Turn 1, forcing him over the sausage kerb and onto the escape road, with similar happening at Turn 3.
Antonelli then attempted to overtake Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc for third at Turn 1 on lap two, but again went wide at the corner exit despite moving ahead of the Monegasque.
So he was forced to hand position back heading into Turn 3, which allowed Max Verstappen to enter the frame and also overtake the 19-year-old who’d therefore dropped to fifth by lap two.
Antonelli ultimately recovered to finish third at the Red Bull Ring behind his race-winning team-mate George Russell and Verstappen, but felt he could have achieved much more.
The Italian was fastest in both Friday practice sessions before holding provisional pole, only to abort his final lap thinking Verstappen’s late crash had caused double-waved yellow flags.
But it was only single-waved, which Russell took advantage of to take pole, while Antonelli would have joined him on the front row had he not made the error that he owned up to.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Formula 1 via Getty Images
“It was a weekend where I started very strong and I think because of that I kind of lowered the the intensity a bit too much,” said Antonelli, who now leads Russell by 40 points.
“Coming to qualifying I just felt a bit tense driving wise. Was still up there, but I felt like I wasn’t driving that well and not as free.
“Of course the last lap went like that, but I was a tenth behind George so it probably would have been P2.
“Starting from P4, first two laps were really bad for me and then I really struggled with the brakes and I just lost a lot of time because I started to do mistakes.
“Then the second stint was a bit better and third stint was really, really strong, the pace was there, but of course fell a bit short.”
Qualifying and the opening laps therefore showed the inexperience of sophomore Antonelli, who should now learn from the weekend according to his Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff.
Toto Wolff, Mercedes
Photo by: Anni Graf – Formula 1 via Getty Images
“The first few corners, this is where the race got lost,” said Wolff. “Full attack mode, missing braking in Turn 1, missing braking in Turn 3, missing braking in Turn 4.
“But, as I said, this is exactly what I expect from him. Like yesterday, the yellow, that’s never going to happen to him in his life again. To not see whether it’s a double yellow or a single yellow.
“In the same way today, he just wanted to be right there on George. He wanted to be right behind him and that cost him a position or two.”
Additional reporting by Oleg Karpov
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