Antonelli hails ‘boost of confidence’ in Suzuka after ‘mentally tough’ weekend

Kimi Antonelli became the youngest driver to lead a race in Formula 1 history at the Japanese Grand Prix, rounding off a simultaneously rewarding and demanding weekend for the Mercedes rookie.

Antontelli was somewhat taken aback after he qualified in sixth place for the 53-lap race, explaining that he was struggling to adapt to the circuit, which he had never competed at in his junior career.

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But despite his apprehension, the Italian achieved an impressive result as he crossed the line in his Qualifying position, having led the race for a number of laps after the frontrunners pitted for fresh tyres.

In just his third race for Mercedes, Antonelli proved that he can keep up with his more experienced team mate George Russell – he finished just over 1.3s behind the Briton, taking his total to 30 points for the season.

“It was a nice feeling," the Italian said on being the youngest driver to lead a race.

"But what I’m most happy about is the fact that we had good pace, much better than China – especially on the hards, I felt really good out there and was able to put consistent laps in.

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“I was definitely much, much happier with how I finished the weekend because it was a really difficult start. Mentally, it was quite tough as well because when you start so far back, it’s difficult to make the switch.

“I was also happy with how Qualifying went, and today I did another step in terms of driving so definitely a good boost of confidence ahead of next weekend.”

Meanwhile, Russell appeared slightly more downbeat as he took P5, insisting that he and the team had failed to maximise the performance of the car throughout the competitive sessions.

“We definitely missed out yesterday,” he explained. “That was the first Qualifying in as long as I can remember where we did not get the potential from the car.

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“Was the potential higher up the order? I don’t know how much higher we could have gone, but I know that there was a good couple of tenths in it, and that ultimately paid a big price for today. Bahrain is going to be a new test.”