Antonelli and the ‘yellow’ at the end of FP1: session closed early due to power unit problems

Immediately fast, but the power unit goes haywire It opened with a bittersweet free practice session on Friday in Miami for the leader of the F1 World Championship, Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The very young Italian Mercedes driver seemed immediately at ease on the Florida track where 12 months ago he had obtained his first pole position in the Sprint qualifying; in fact, after the first part of the session, when all the big names had used hard tyres, Antonelli was second in the time rankings behind only Charles Leclerc. The winner of the Chinese and Japanese GPs, however, was no longer able to return to the track – it is no coincidence that he completed only 24 laps in FP1, compared to 34 for Russell and 41 for the Leclerc-Verstappen pair – due to a problem with the Mercedes power unit which the team was unable to resolve in time to be able to send him back to the track. Antonelli thus had to watch from the pits the fast laps set at the end of the session by his rivals on soft tyres, which brought him down to P5 in the ranking. The hope, for him and for Mercedes, is that all the technical difficulties at the PU will be resolved before the start of Sprint qualifying, the first truly relevant session of this weekend in Florida.

Automobile Magazine – F1 English News
2026-05-02 04:29:00