MIAMI, Florida — Regardless of beginning in pole place, the Dash race didn’t go Kimi Antonelli’s means on the System 1 Miami Grand Prix.
However the younger Mercedes phenom simply put himself ready to ship even greater factors tomorrow.
Whereas Antonelli misplaced the lead within the F1 Dash race to Oscar Piastri in Flip 1, in the end settling for a seventh-place end, the Mercedes rookie delivered his finest Grand Prix qualifying results of his F1 profession later within the day, qualifying third behind solely pole-sitter Max Verstappen, and McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Antonelli mentioned on Friday he was over the moon together with his pole place. Talking Saturday after qualifying he informed the media simply how “completely satisfied” he was to bounce again after a “disappointing” begin to the day.
“Yeah, I imply, this weekend goes nicely up to now. Was a bit disappointing this morning, nevertheless it was good to bounce again this manner and yeah, I struggled a little bit bit in the course of the quali,” mentioned Antonelli within the FIA Press Convention. “I didn’t have such a clear run like I had yesterday. However yeah, that final lap was fairly good. I used to be a bit too grasping in Flip 1 beginning the lap, however the remainder of the lap was fairly good, so I’m proud of it.”
Past being proud of the outcomes, Antonelli set forth that he was rising happier with the W16, the crew’s challenger for the 2025 season.
“Undoubtedly,” started Antonelli when requested if he was happier within the automobile.
“I imply, each weekend is studying and expertise and extra confidence with the automobile as nicely. So actually, actually proud of how each weekend I’m extra capable of play much more with the automobile and making an attempt to discover the restrict as nicely,” continued the younger driver. “To this point this weekend I felt actually good within the automobile. In order that’s undoubtedly a constructive. And hopefully tomorrow we are able to do a superb race.”
Pressed on a “goal” for the Grand Prix Antonelli demurred, however made it clear he simply desires to have a “good tempo within the race” on Sunday.
“I don’t actually wish to say as a result of it at all times goes terribly fallacious! So I’m simply going attempt to have a superb begin after which attempt to set a superb tempo and stick with Max and Lando,” mentioned Antonelli.
“It’s not going to be straightforward in fact, however we’ll see, initially, how’s the climate, as a result of there are some thunderstorms in all probability, so which may not be very nice,” continued the driving force. “However yeah, let’s simply see how the climate goes to be after which we’ll attempt to do our greatest with what we have now. Undoubtedly additionally in FP1 we did fairly a future, so we have been capable of accumulate good information on the dry and hopefully we are able to have a superb tempo within the race.”
What may be a scary thought for the remainder of the grid is that that is simply Antonelli’s sixth F1 race and his first time on the Miami Grand Prix.
Quickly the calendar shifts to Europe, the place he has rather more expertise.
“There’s nonetheless room for enchancment, however yeah, I really feel higher and higher within the automobile each weekend,” added Antonelli. “So hopefully after this weekend, we’re going to European tracks, tracks that I do know nicely, and hopefully I can keep the identical tempo and even go sooner.”
Think about that.