For all his youth, such has been Kimi Antonelli’s consummate control this season he has barely put a foot wrong. In qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix however he was given a salutary reminder that the full-on commitment that makes him so engrossing to watch can still bite.
The F1 championship leader was disconsolate at being eliminated after hitting the wall in the first session but with his Mercedes team-mate George Russell on pole it has set up a potentially fascinating showdown for Saturday’s race.
Antonelli’s error was uncharacteristic and, he conceded, unnecessary. He knows his lead in the championship – 81 points over Russell – is such that he need take no chances, especially at a track where Mercedes enjoy such a huge advantage over their rivals. Russell’s pole, an immense lap of the street circuit in Baku, was eight-tenths clear of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in second, the largest margin to pole of the season.
Antonelli has been a revelation in only his second season in F1 with eight victories so far but on Friday in Baku he was sat disconsolately trackside after only 11 minutes of running. A little too eager into the 90-degree left-handed turn one, he clipped the barrier.
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He took damage to the track rod and a puncture and while he attempted to bring the car home, he was told to park up by a race engineer Pete Bonnington. “We can’t fix this, mate,” Bonnington said. The 20-year-old’s time was enough to see him through to Q2, in which he took no part. Finishing in 16th and angry with himself he held his hands up to the error, caught out as the grip ramped up.
“I turned in and suddenly I had a lot more front end than the lap before and touched the wall,” he said. “Mistake from my side, very unnecessary. I’m very mad about it and we’ll try to do better tomorrow. We’ll try our best to recover as many places as possible.”
The mistake is Antonelli’s only serious error this year since he crashed in final practice at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix and he was understandably crestfallen, aware a fractional misjudgment had been enormously costly.
Russell in is every position to take advantage and to try to claw back some of the points he desperately needs to keep the title fight alive but Antonelli knows that the race is far from a write-off.
At Monza he came back from 19th to take victory and Baku, with its long straights, has similarly generous opportunities for overtaking. But he cannot afford to be caught in incidents in the midfield.
“Race smart in the early stages tomorrow and I am sure he has the pace to climb his way back up the field,” said the Mercedes deputy team principal, Bradley Lord.
In Monza, when Antonelli took a new engine and accrued grid penalties – an imposition still to come for Russell at some point – Mercedes had been hopeful he might come back as high as fifth and he bettered that with a win. Such is the pace of the Mercedes in Baku it is not inconceivable that he could go as high as second, if beating his team-mate on this form may be a bridge too far.
Indeed, Russell did everything that was required of him with a confidence and touch that he has lacked at points this season. He has been quick all weekend in Azerbaijan, outpacing his team-mate, and qualifying proved one of his best performances.
The preseason favourite, the British driver has been on the back foot due to problems around the car’s energy deployment which left him frustrated and examining his own driving style. However, having said he intended to drive more instinctively, he came into the weekend confident and backed it up with an inch-perfect run in qualifying. If he can convert it on Saturday he will have at least kept his slender title hopes alive.
Russell was initially pushed hard by the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri but with the track evolving and grip at its peak his last hot lap was a belter. Enormously quick in the first sector, he continued to improve and finished in 1min 42.526sec. Norris locked up on his final lap at turn three and could manage only fifth. Piastri was third and Isack Hadjar fourth, with his Red Bull team-mate, Max Verstappen, in eighth and Lewis Hamilton in sixth.
Russell will take heart from his fifth pole this year, his first in Baku and his first since the Austrian GP but the serious business remains on Saturday. On both sides of the Mercedes garage. – Guardian
