Andrea Kimi Antonelli accused Ferrari of “sandbagging” after showing drastic improvements in qualifying for the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix, seeing him pegged down to fourth place.
The Italian would have been hoping for at least a front row start, with teammate George Russell taking pole position, having been cleared of failing to sufficiently slow during a yellow flag period, caused by Max Verstappen’s crash late in Q3.
Russell’s 1:06.113 saw him take top spot by over two tenths from the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc in second, with Lewis Hamilton in third.
Antonelli backed out on his final push lap, meaning he will line up on the second row, and on the dirtier side, as the Scuderia once again showed strength and improvement, continuing from Hamilton’s victory in Barcelona two weeks ago.
And with its SF-26 now boasting a refreshed power unit through the assistance of ADUO, there appears to be further reasons for the Maranello-based squad to be confident of further success.
However, it did not seem that way on Friday, with both cars lagging behind not only both Mercedes, but also the McLarens, which saw its challenge fall away with Lando Norris sixth, and Oscar Piastri seventh, around two tenths off the Ferraris.
Speaking after qualifying, a disappointed Antonelli said, when asked about Ferrari’s apparent lack of straight-line speed, indicated that its cars were hiding true pace.
“For sure, yesterday they were sandbagging definitely, so I mean for sure their pace is going to be much better and we saw how strong they were in Barcelona, so let’s see,” he told media, including Motorsport Week.
“It’s going to be, again, another race where you need to manage tyres and trying to extract the maximum out of it.”
Ferrari’s significant strength across the early rounds of the season was its start-line getaways, with Leclerc and Hamilton often getting ahead of the Silver Arrows to initially cause interest.
But there is now some equality at lights out, and when put to him that this might spell a better chance of a result, Antonelli showed optimism for an opportunity to increase his championship lead.
“Well, yeah, hopefully tomorrow we can get a good start and yes, at the pace of course it would have been better to start in the front row,” he said, “but there’s a lot to play for tomorrow, so yeah, looking forward to that.”
With Russell taking 18 points out of Antonelli’s title lead in Barcelona – owing to his retirement in the final few laps – the 19-year-old will be eager to catch his teammate on the track to ensure no more chunks of his lead are taken.
READ MORE – George Russell takes barnstorming F1 Austrian GP pole, Max Verstappen crashes out
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