Kimi Antonelli has revealed his fury at a race start blunder that saw him drop out of the top four at the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix.
Based off the end result, Antonelli cruised to easy victory in Suzuka, winning by over 13 seconds from the McLaren of Oscar Piastri, but his race start was anything but this.
Is W17 proved sluggish off the line at lights, and the Mercedes quickly became engulfed by rivals around him, dropping out of the podium places.
Forced to fight his way back to second place before the pit stops, the young Italian’s fortunes were saved by a Safety Car to clean up the wreck of Oliver Bearman’s Haas, allowing him to pit and not lose time.
Once back in the lead he pulled away with ease to take his second consecutive victory, but after the race, his start still proved to be a point of contention.
“I’s nice to be back, you know, on the top step,” he said in the post race press conference.
“Obviously a very special win, a very special track but, you know, on one side I’m very happy but on the other side I’m a bit disappointed with how the start went. It’s an area where I need to work a lot because it’s definitely not good enough and I’m just making my life a lot harder.
“So definitely a lot of work to do still but I was very lucky, of course, with how the safety car, you know, with the timing of the safety car. But yeah, the pace was very, very strong and I’m really happy with that”
Kimi Antonelli reveals cause of race start issues
Revealing the detail behind his disastrous start, Antonelli also highlighted the consequences of his bogging down.
“Just when I think I dropped the clutch a bit, you know, too deep, deeper than what I should have and obviously the tyres were also a bit colder.
“So obviously I went beyond the grip that was available and just lost a lot of places.
Antonelli then revealed his fury after the start, running a lowly P6, but confirmed he still believed a recovery was possible.
“I cannot say but I was very mad. Probably.I think it was a bit difficult to get by when I was behind charge because we obviously had two completely different deployments and it was just hard to find the right place to overtake.”
“Then he went back in the pit and then we improved a lot with the pace and obviously I was lucky with the safety car but without the safety car I don’t know how the outcome would have been. Definitely it would have been a lot more difficult but you never know.
Antonelli’s performance in Suzuka highlights the raw talent of the young Italian. Hungry, highly skilled, and still requiring experience, expect his race start in Miami to be a step up from this weekend; not because of pressure externally, but from the desire to improve.
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