Formula 1 Championship leader, Kimi Antonelli, has revealed the funny reason behind his ‘surprise’ US GP pole position.
In a weekend crucial to Antonelli’s title hopes, the 20-year-old kicked his title bid off in style.
The Italian claimed pole position whilst his teammate and nearest championship rival, George Russell, found himself down in eighth.
But despite leading the Championship, his pole lap left many in shock, none more than his own race engineer, Peter Bonnington, who claimed over team radio that he “wasn’t expecting” that result.
When asked about the ‘surprise’ lap time, Antonelli referenced an ongoing issue that has plagued his last few weekends. The issue in question? Track limits.
” It was surprising, but also one of the biggest achievements for me today is that I didn’t do track limits,” Antonelli joked after qualifying
“That also made our life a little bit easier.”
Track limits an issue for Kimi Antonelli in recent races?
In the past few rounds, the Mercedes driver has been caught out for track limits. Most recently, in Singapore, Antonelli faced four track-limit violations but escaped a five-second penalty as Mercedes successfully challenged one of his lap deletions.
The 20-year-old explained that he opted for a safer approach this weekend, focusing on progressing throughout qualifying at the front of the field, ultimately resulting in the ‘unexpected’ surprise.
“You know, I didn’t put myself in a difficult situation, and we were able to just progress throughout the session and build from there.
But definitely, it was unexpected. We knew we’d be close, but yeah, it was a good surprise.”
Antonelli has the chance to etch his name into the history books today. If the Italian secures victory with Lewis Hamilton fifth or lower and Russell ninth or lower, he will become the youngest F1 World Champion.
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