F1 Australia, Antonelli beats Russell on Friday
It was a good start to the World Championship for Kimi Antonelli. The driver from Bologna started slowly due to some configuration problems with the power unit (but finished just five thousandths behind George Russell) and then moved up to second position at the end of FP2 in Melbourne, beating his more popular teammate.
Antonelli confirmed the goodness of the Mercedes project, surrendering only to Oscar Piastri, but he knows well that this is only the beginning. Not just of the weekend, but of an era in which drivers and teams will learn day by day.
Antonelli’s words
“Our day got off to a rocky start in FP1, where we had to focus mainly on improving battery usage“, he commented after FP2. “This left us less time to work on the set-up and therefore the balance of the car was not optimal, we had a lot of understeer. We worked hard between sessions and achieved much better results in FP2“.
“I can’t wait for the rest of the weekend“he added.”We hope to be among the first, but everyone is learning so much in every session and every lap that today’s findings may not apply tomorrow. It looks like it will be a close battle between all the top teams, McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull are also strong. We will continue to push hard to get 100% out of the car and see where this takes us in qualifying and the Grand Prix.“.
