Kimi Antonelli has revealed details of his ‘weird’ Q3 at the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix after he compromised his laps to help teammate George Russell.
Antonelli entered qualifying knowing that he would be sent to the back of the grid due to a power unit change that fell outside his allowed allocation.
The Italian’s Saturday therefore ended up being far from normal, with the priority given instead to help Russell secure pole position using the infamous Monza tow.
That idea failed to materialise, with Russell starting in second, much to the disappointment of Team Principal Toto Wolff.
After the session, Antonelli admitted to having “mixed feelings| about his qualifying session.
“It was a very weird feeling, but I had to do my job, which was to help George, and I tried my best in order to help as much as possible,” Antonelli said to media.
“But of course, Q3 was very weird and even the lap I did, it was an okay lap, but nothing special as I had more fuel in the car than what you would normally have, and I didn’t want to make any mistakes that would compromise the programme – which was to give the tow to George on the last lap as well.
“So obviously mixed feelings, but it is what it is.
Kimi Antonelli explains Q3 lap
Detailing his lap, Antonelli said he was given strict instructions not to pass Max Verstappen, admitting his cooldown was stressful.
“[Max Verstappen did try to let me overtake], but I was very strictly told not to pass, so it was a bit tricky because I was in the middle, and I didn’t know what to do, but I stayed behind just to give George the best tow as possible.
“On the cooldown lap, it’s really hard to build boost, so it was quite stressful being let by the whole group with no boost. In some places I was going really slowly, and I had to do really odd lines in order not to get in someone’s way, so I think that was much more stressful than giving the tow to George.”
Saturday was an unusual day at the office for Antonelli, forced to act as number two to his main championship rival. Although ultimately unsuccessful, he looks set to spend the race in damage-limitation mode fighting back through the field.
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