Kimi Antonelli becomes Formula 1’s youngest pole sitter as Mercedes completes a strong showing on Saturday which follows George Russell’s win in the Sprint Race.
SPRINT RACE
Kimi Antonelli got off to a bad start in the race as he fell from 2nd to 8th by the time he got to turn 1, while the Ferrari and McLaren drivers all got a good launch, though none were able to challenge Russell going into turn 1.
Things went from bad to worse for Antonelli on lap 1 as he made contact with Hadjar while trying to regain a position. While there would be a little bit of damage, Antonelli would be able to continue for the rest of the Sprint, though he would now be carrying a 10 second time penalty for the incident.
Further along into turn 1 and Hamilton, who had made his way up to 2nd at the start, was able to overtake Russell for the lead at turn 9, a very unorthodox spot on the track to make such a move.
Russell wouldn’t stay away from top spot for long though, retaking the lead on the back straight heading to turn 14, but Hamilton would himself regain the lead just moments later as they headed into turn 1, the battle looking reminiscent of the one that Russell and Leclerc had in Australia.
This battle would continue for another few laps before Russell would start to pull away, never really being challenged again for the rest of the Sprint as he effectively cruised to victory.
The day wasn’t done for Hamilton though, as his attention quickly had to turn to defending his second place from his teammate Leclerc.
The two would race close but mostly fair for a couple of laps before Leclerc would finally come out on top, though there would be a point where Leclerc thought he had been squeezed off of the track by Hamilton.
By lap 11 Antonelli would recover to 3rd place, showing the full capabilities of his Mercedes in doing so, while also meaning that Hamilton would fall to 4th on track for the time being.
He would go on to overtake Leclerc for 2nd place on lap 13 and did so at the perfect time, as immediately after doing so the safety car was brought out due to Hulkenberg retiring at turn 1.
Most drivers came in to the pits to change onto fresh tyres thanks to the safety car, which did shuffle some some positions around, with Hamilton falling behind Norris due to being the second car in a double stack and Antonelli would drop to 7th.
Hamilton was able to overtake Norris a lap after racing resumed to reclaim his spot on the podium, while Antonelli would have to overtake Bearman, Lawson and Piastri on his way to finishing the Sprint in 5th.
QUALIFYING
Q1
Lewis Hamilton started this session on the back foot after a big snap of oversteer cost him a lot of time during his first lap while out on a used set of medium tyres, putting him close to the elimination zone at one point. However, with plenty of time to rectify the mistake and a new set of tyres, the Ferrari driver was able to safely make it through to Q2.
Arvid Lindblad almost didn’t make it out of Q1 after being told to pit due to an unspecified issue, but whatever was causing issues in the car was quickly fixed and the rookie was able to make it out for one more lap, making it safely through to the next part of qualifying.
Like Lewis Hamilton, the Red Bull drivers experimented with using an old set of medium tyres, which did not provide a great level of pace and put both Verstappen and Hadjar under possible threat come the end of the session, but new times set by each of them on new softs meant that they could make it through to the next part of qualifying.
The running order in the bottom six was largely in tact when compared to Friday’s sprint qualifying, with Williams, Aston Martin and Cadillac all being the slowest three teams, but Valtteri Bottas was able to outqualify an Aston Martin in Lance Stroll, unlike in yesterday’s session.
ELIMINATED
17. Carlos Sainz – Williams +0.178
18. Alexander Albon – Williams +0.633
19. Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin +1.064
20. Valtteri Bottas – Cadillac + 1.297
21. Lance Stroll – Aston Martin +1.856
22. Sergio Perez – Cadillac +2.767
Q2
Oscar Piastri looked like he could have been in danger of elimination by the halfway point of Q2, finding himself in 10th place after setting an initial time on used softs, but a new set of tyres allowed him to better show the capabilities of his car, and he was able to safely make it through to the top 10 shootout.
Isack Hadjar was once again close to being eliminated from qualifying, but this time on much more equal pace. A double yellow flag being waved at the final corner saved him from being pushed down by Arvid Lindblad, who had to back off, but Colapinto was on a good lap and didn’t have to worry about the yellow flags, though the Alpine driver fell just short by 5 thousandths of a second.
Another driver who came agonisingly close to eliminating Hadjar and making their way into Q3 was Nico Hulkenberg, who set a lap time that was just 2 thousandths of a second slower than the Red Bull’s.
ELIMINATED
11. Nico Hulkenberg – Audi +0.002
12. Franco Colapinto – Alpine +0.005
13. Esteban Ocon – Haas +0.186
14. Liam Lawson – Racing Bulls +0.413
15. Arvid Lindblad – Racing Bulls +0.432
16. Gabriel Bortoleto – Audi +0.613
Q3
Trouble was beginning to brew in the Mercedes garage as Russell stopped his car on his first outlap due to some mechanical issues, making it a question of if he would even compete in Q3, but he was able to get the car going again and get his car into the pits.
While Russell was waiting to see if his car could be fixed, his teammate Antonelli went to provisional pole position ahead of both McLarens and Ferraris.
Russell would be able to eventually make it back out on track for one final run in the dying embers of the session, but an improved time from Antonelli on his final lap would only limit Russell to 2nd place on the grid, while Hamilton and Leclerc lock out the second row.
Qualifying Results
1. Kimi Antonelli – Mercedes 1:32.064
2. George Russell – Mercedes +0.222
3. Lewis Hamilton – Ferrari +0.351
4. Charles Leclerc – Ferrari +0.364
5. Oscar Piastri – McLaren +0.486
6. Lando Norris – McLaren +0.544
7. Pierre Gasly – Alpine +0.809
8. Max Verstappen – Red Bull +0.938
9. Isack Hadjar- Red Bull +1.057
10. Oliver Bearman – Haas +1.228
