Antonelli ‘disappointed’ with fifth in Singapore as he ‘could have achieved more’

Kimi Antonelli was left with mixed feelings after the Singapore Grand Prix, believing more was possible as his Mercedes team mate went on to secure victory around the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

Whilst the youngster was able to join George Russell on the podium in Canada as the latter won in Montreal, he finished fifth in Singapore on a night where the Mercedes car, in the hands of Russell, kept the Red Bull of Max Verstappen at bay with ease to win.

Antonelli was swift to point to two areas where he felt the weekend got away from him. The first was Qualifying, where he felt he did not do quite a good enough job in Q3 as his team mate grabbed pole.

The second area was the start of the race itself, where the youngster lost out to both the McLaren of Lando Norris, and Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari.

“The start was difficult, left-hand side of the grid was a bit worse than the right-hand side, [it] was a bit dirtier and a bit more difficult to do a good start,” he explained after the race.

“It was a shame as it defined a bit the race. As we have seen previously, track position is extremely important. [I] lost a couple of places at the start, then [got] stuck behind Leclerc.

“The pace was really good to be honest, I felt really good in the car and just a bit disappointed because the potential was higher. I think with a better Q3, [it] could have been a different story but we’ll try to do better next time.”

Antonelli was unable to get past Leclerc in the first stint, despite running within DRS range of the Ferrari for lap after lap. But once both drivers had bolted on the hard tyre, the Mercedes man was able to pull off a pass, one of very few around a track where overtaking is notoriously difficult.

That left him to come home fifth at the flag, to back up his P4 from Azerbaijan. After a tricky time of it in Europe through the summer, with that entire run of races in his home continent yielding just three points, Antonelli seems to have bounced right back into some much better form for the flyaway races.

“It was a tough race physically but I’m happy with how I managed to battle back," he continued. "The pace was good, and I was able to gain a position back with a good move on Leclerc. We could have achieved more tonight but P5 is still okay."

One of the hallmarks of the race in Singapore was how the W16 handled the hot conditions, with Mercedes normally going much better than their rivals when conditions cool off. Toto Wolff has famously joked that his team does well whenever he is forced into wearing a sweater, but that was definitely not the case in Singapore when humidity touched 80% at times.

“Definitely the car is getting stronger and stronger,” agreed Antonelli. “I’m able to really put the car where I want and really play with the car so that is a real positive one and, yeah, just really looking forward to the next few races.

“Congratulations to George for winning the race. He did a great job and maximised the result and also congratulations to McLaren for winning the Constructors’ and congratulations to our department as well – they’ve done an incredible job [going] back-to-back, our engine is winning the Championship so incredible job from them as well.”