Antonelli assesses ‘weird’ first day on track in Monza as he predicts ‘tight fight’ for pole position

Kimi Antonelli has given his take on the first day of track action at the Italian Grand Prix, with the Italian admitting that having a particular focus on long runs felt “a bit weird” as he prepares to start from the back in Sunday’s race.

After ending Free Practice 1 in fifth place on the timesheets – with the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton setting the pace – Antonelli moved up to third during the day’s second session, which was topped by team mate George Russell.

Reflecting back on his Friday – marking the beginning of his home race weekend – the championship leader said: “It's amazing to be here and the support has been incredible. Today [was] a bit of a different day compared to usual, a lot more focused on long runs.

“So yeah, it was a bit weird, not going to lie, but overall it was good day. We got a lot of data, and now looking forward to the next few days.”

Antonelli will be faced with the challenge of trying to work his way through the order on Sunday, with the Mercedes driver set to serve a grid penalty due to a planned engine change.

Pushed on what he now expects this fightback to be like after getting a taste of running alongside other cars in Friday’s practice sessions, Antonelli responded: “It's a track where you can really do so many different things.

“It was interesting in the long run today, running behind other cars to see what they were doing differently, where they were deploying compared to us, so it was very interesting. That's why I think we have got a lot of data and now we look forward to tomorrow.”

Antonelli was also quizzed on the potential threat posed by Ferrari and suggested that the Scuderia are “for sure” in the battle for pole position.

“Ferrari definitely took a step forward with the new engine and now the speeds are the same, so we know how good their car is into the corners,” he explained. “So for sure, it's going to be a tight fight for pole tomorrow.”

Deputy Team Principal Bradley Lord echoed Antonelli’s sentiment that it had been a “solid day” for Mercedes at Monza, commenting: “We had a clear programme of things we wanted to try – we've evaluated different wing levels on the cars, got the set-up pretty nicely balanced into a good place.

“Kimi's been focusing more on long run pace, a bit less on the single lap. George obviously [was focused] on both because he's aiming for pole tomorrow, but it's clear that it's very, very close.

“I think if you look at the Ferraris, they've been strong in both sessions, maybe a little bit less in FP2 than FP1, but I'm sure they've got more to come so they're probably the favourites heading into tomorrow.”

While Russell reported a vibration on the car during second practice – and Antonelli experienced some understeer – Lord said that there were “no dramas in any sense”, adding that the fact that the long run pace had looked strong was “super important for Kimi coming from the back and hopefully for George racing from the front”.

Lord went on to state that Antonelli’s goal in Sunday’s Grand Prix will be to gain “as many positions as possible”.

“The race can fall one way and really play into his hands or another way and sort of go against him,” he explained. “We've had a bit of a run this year of unlucky and unfortunate VSCs and Safety Cars, so maybe we can get one back in terms of the sort of karma wheel turning.

“But no, I think he's aiming to get back into solid points positions. We saw George able to do that in Hungary where overtaking was much more difficult, but we don't want to put too precise a prediction on it because, yeah, let's see what he can make happen.”