Antonelli is 3rd but a little bitter: “Verstappen? Yes, I would have attacked him. And without brake problems…”

Kimi Antonelli, an Austrian GP in the chase. Third place under the checkered flag should not be misleading: the pace of Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who started fourth after the chaotic end to qualifying on Saturday, allowed him to recover, to fight wheel to wheel against his rivals and, finally, also to close the gap from teammate George Russell and his main pursuer Max Verstappen. Thus, the Italian driver loses 10 points in the Drivers’ standings, but crosses the finish line with the awareness of having put in another high-level performance, which perhaps could also have had a different epilogue with a few more laps or with a further start on the grid. Click here to add Formula Passion as a favorite source on Google Discover: you will find our contents more easily The words of the Mercedes driver Also because, despite the race pace, the performance was called into question by some technical problems that prevented him from pushing hard, especially in the early stages of the GP. “I struggled a lot with the brakes at the beginning – he explains in the ring of interviews with Sky microphones – but a little throughout the race. I had the brakes much hotter on one side than on the other and therefore the car pulled a little to the right and a little to the left when braking, but the pedal was also quite long. So I struggled a lot when braking, blocking very often and losing a lot of time because of that. It’s a shame because, perhaps, without these problems, the last laps would have been different”. “I have to say that in the first stint – he adds – I struggled a lot, but then in the second I felt much better in the car. In the third, however, I think we were going really fast but unfortunately I arrived late”. “Overtaking Verstappen at the end? I didn’t think about the championship, in fact I would have absolutely tried, because I was there anyway. Let’s say that even in the race I started with a bit of a closed streak, but I must say that certainly if I had had the opportunity I would have tried to make the most of it”, concludes Kimi Antonelli.

Automobile Magazine – Formula1 English, News

2026-06-29 02:25:00