Andrea Kimi Antonelli broke down his stellar defence that kept a fast-charging Max Verstappen at bay to secure his best-ever Formula 1 result at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The 19-year-old showed exemplary pace throughout the Sprint weekend at Interlagos.
Qualifying saw Antonelli slot his W16 right alongside championship leader Lando Norris for the 71-lap race on Sunday.
However, an early race scuffle during the Safety Car restart with Oscar Piastri, into Turn 1, made the Italian’s afternoon trickier than initially expected.
That said, the Mercedes driver was able to jump the likes of his team-mate George Russell, Piastri and Verstappen to emerge in second place after the final rounds of pitstops.
Verstappen, who had opted to revert to an aggressive three-stop strategy after suffering an early puncture, finished the better half of the final 20 laps on the red-walled Soft tyres.
As the race drew to a conclusion, the Dutchman caught up to the gearbox of Antonelli, who showed a stout defence to take his best-ever finish in F1 at the chequered flag.
“Yeah, I mean I don’t know where this guy [Verstappen] came from, to be honest. I didn’t see it coming,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
Antonelli revealed that his contact with Piastri had left him with some damage to the car, but he was able to still keep it on track with the aid of a bit of free air.
“But yeah, to be fair, I was lucky to come away with the restart, with the contact,” he added. “Need to check with the car, it felt a bit weird afterwards.
“But, you know, still a good race and the last laps were very stressful with Max coming on fresher tyres.
“But luckily with free air, we were able to maintain a decent pace and to finish P2.”
Verstappen stands by Red Bull strategy
Verstappen’s third stint on the Medium tyres saw him claw back the advantage he had lost because of his puncture and VSC pitstop.
At one point, with race leader Lando Norris pitting for his final stop, the Dutchman assumed the lead of the race, with Norris mandated to overtake him on track.
However, Red Bull thought it best to cover the 28-year-old and pitted him for a third time to fit him with a brand new set of Soft tyres – which he inherited after his shock Q1 exit.
Verstappen himself surmised that the Soft tyres were not the best to mount a late-race charge, especially in the context of running in the dirty air of the cars ahead.
That said, he still insisted that the pit wall made the right decision in terms of overall strategy.
“I think we had much better pace. I think it was a bit colder today, which maybe helped us,” he addressed.
“The car just felt a bit more responsive. Even with the puncture that I picked up on the Hard, to then drop back to last and come through the field again on the Mediums.
“I think we did the right strategy at the end.
“Even on the Soft, it seemed like it was OK. Just when you start getting close and I passed George, you already wear your tyres a bit.
“And then when I was getting close to Kimi, the tyres just started to overheat and you lose a lot of grip.”
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