Antonelli needs to "rewatch" his final qualifying lap
On the back of another mesmerizing effort in the qualifying session at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli insisted that he needs to "rewatch" his final push lap as he thought that P4 was withing his reach.
It was not obvious how competitive Mercedes is at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit as the W16 looked strong in certain conditions, but it appeared to lack pace in others. However, qualifying night at Jeddah turned out to be a strong session for the Brackley-based outfit after George Russell came agonisingly close in battle for Jeddah pole
Ultimately, the Briton wound up just a tenth off pole, firmly in the fight with the Red Bull and McLaren ahead. His team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who has experience of the Jeddah circuit from last year when he drove in F2, once again showed how quickly he is progressing as he ended up fifth on the grid.
Having displayed impressive performance through the qualifying session at Jeddah, Antonelli insisted that he needs to "rewatch" his final push lap as he thought that P4 was withing his reach.
"That was a very intense Qualifying! The session as a whole went well, and I continued to build my speed. I had a big snap on my first lap in Q1 and had to burn a second set of new tyres to get through to Q2. That wasn’t ideal but we still made it through to Q3 and, with the red flag, it all came down to the final effort anyway.
"I need to rewatch my lap to see exactly what happened, but I had a moment in the first sector that cost me a few tenths. That was a shame as the rest of the lap was strong and I think we could have taken P4.
"I’m feeling more and more confident each and every weekend. This track is such a big test as you need lots of confidence and to get really close to the walls through the high-speed corners. Step-by-step, and the more experience I’m getting, I feel like I’m starting to put it all together with more consistency.
"Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though and see what we can do tomorrow. It will be a long race and hopefully we can bring home some solid points for the team."
