Mercedes
Antonelli was made to wait for his pole position start thanks to delays after the visibility was deemed too poor to race. When he did pull away from P1, he had some wheelspin and found Piastri alongside. Instead of yielding he tried to fight, running off track and dropping to fourth. But his quest for a podium ended in the pit lane as he tried to box, only to collide with a freshly shod Verstappen. The rookie did very well to minimise contact and ensure everyone’s safety, but that forced him to come in again and lost him a handful of positions. Russell had a quieter time of it, staying out of trouble to finish fifth – but both drivers were promoted thanks to penalties for others.
READ MORE: Antonelli gives verdict on first corner move from Piastri as he reflects on Verstappen pit lane incident during tough Miami Sprint
Both made Q3 in Qualifying, but again it was the youngster who out-shone his more experienced team mate. It might not have been pole, but Antonelli wound up 0.002s off the front row despite McLaren arguably having the better car. He will be one to watch tomorrow as he chases a maiden podium.
George Russell, Sprint: 4th, Qualifying: 5th, 1:26.385
“Qualifying has been a strength of mine since the beginning of the season, but it has not clicked for me either yesterday or today. I am therefore relatively happy to take P5 on the grid for tomorrow’s race because we know how tight the field is. To end up just under two tenths from pole is a bit of a surprise given the confidence I’ve been lacking on the single lap. The car is obviously quick as Kimi did another great job in Qualifying. I am really proud of how he has performed; he has been consistent, and we’ve got another chance to score some solid points for the team tomorrow.
“We will reset tonight, and I’ll make sure I am performing at my best tomorrow. The Sprint was a little disappointing as we finished only one place ahead of where we started by virtue of a time penalty. We should have perhaps made the call to go to slicks earlier and we could have gained a couple more positions. That said, the Grand Prix is where the big points are scored. It may be mixed weather conditions again and we will be ready to take advantage of any opportunities that come our way.”
Kimi Antonelli, Sprint: 7th, Qualifying: 3rd, 1:26.271
“I’ve felt confident with the car throughout this weekend, and it was good to convert that into another strong qualifying result. I struggled a little bit in Q1 and Q2, not having as clean a run as I had in Sprint Qualifying yesterday. My last lap in Q3 was my best effort today though. I was a little greedy in Turn 1, but the rest of the lap was quick. The gaps at the front are incredibly tight and even a few hundredths can make a difference. I am happy with how my lap was though and P3 is a good place to be starting from for tomorrow’s Grand Prix.
“The Sprint race was a little disappointing this morning. I lost several places at Turn 1 and then was unfortunate with the contact with Verstappen in the pit lane. We had the opportunity and the pace to have a stronger result, but it was good to bounce back later in the day. We will be aiming to have a cleaner race tomorrow and see what we can do.”
Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“We need to be pleased with the performances we put in during Qualifying today. Both drivers didn’t have the perfect laps, so we could hypothetically talk about starting higher up on the grid; Kimi had a small mistake at turn one and George had a snap of oversteer through turn seven. Nevertheless, we know it was going to be a tough ask to challenge the McLarens and Verstappen so, even though we’re never going to be satisfied with P3 and P5, we can look forward to Sunday.
“The weather forecast for the race is mixed and we wouldn’t be unhappy with a few rain showers tomorrow. Our race pace isn’t as strong as the McLarens in the hotter conditions, and both Verstappen and the Ferraris have shown in recent races how quick they can be in similar circumstances. It is an area we are working hard to improve on and hopefully we can take a step forward in the upcoming races. For now, we will race hard tomorrow and see what we can do from the second and third rows of the grid.”
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
“The Sprint this morning was frustrating. Kimi had a bit of wheel spin off the line, battled for position with Piastri and ultimately dropped to P4. After that, it was all about the transition to the dry tyres. We hesitated and went one lap later than others but would have still been in a decent position had Verstappen not been unsafely released into Kimi’s path. He reacted well to avoid anyone getting hurt but ultimately it finished his race as he had to drive around and stop the next lap. George lost a bit of race time by stopping the lap after but that was inevitable. It would have been good to see where we performed if we had more racing in the dry, but that will wait until tomorrow. We still scored some useful points, but it could have been a lot better.
“We made a few small changes to the car going into Qualifying. The track seemed a bit more difficult today, with the drivers finding it harder to know where to position the tyre temperatures. Generally, the tyres were not biting as well as they had yesterday for us. It wasn’t an easy route through to Q3, but we got both cars there with two new sets of Soft tyres. Neither driver got perfect laps; both could have found a bit more and the gaps to pole position were not large. Starting P3 and P5 still gives us the opportunity for a good result tomorrow and, with threat of rain, anything can happen.”
/HD7ZsX-W8AAWxO-.webp?ssl=1 "Check out Racing Bulls’ special livery for the Japanese Grand Prix")
