Kimi Antonelli was delighted to score a point with a hard-fought 10th place finish during a “tough” and “never-ending” Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Mercedes rookie’s weekend had been made difficult following a mistake in Saturday’s Qualifying at the Hungaroring, with a deleted lap time due to track limits dropping him from P11 to P15 on the grid. At a track where overtaking is difficult, the teenager delivered a strong drive to rise up the order and ensure both Silver Arrows cars finished in the top 10.
Pitting after 22 laps for a set of the hard tyre, Antonelli then made the C3 rubber last the distance as the team swapped him to a one-stop strategy, with only Esteban Ocon making a set of tyres last longer in Hungary.
“It was tough, it was tough,” he said afterwards. “First of all, it was not the plan to do one-stop. But then considering the position where we were, we decided to just keeping going given the pace was quite decent.
“Especially when I was in free air, we were able to improve the time and be consistent. But yeah, it was difficult, it was difficult. Happy to have brought home the first point of the European season.”
Antonelli has endured a torrid recent run, with bad luck combining with some mechanical woes and a few mistakes limiting his points-scoring opportunities since F1 returned to Europe. Four DNFs in six races were difficult to take for the Mercedes rookie and, bar his podium in Canada, his only other two finishes since the European chunk of the season began were a P18 and a P16.
After scoring in five of the first six races, with a fourth place and four sixth-place finishes, it has been quite the downturn for the teenager in his maiden season. But Antonelli has kept his head up, and since Mercedes reverted to an older rear suspension, the Italian seems happier with his car.
“That final stint was a very long one, it felt never-ending,” he added. “I did close to 50 laps on that hard tyre and, by the end, I was just hanging on out of the final corner each lap and defending into Turn 1. The cars behind had superior grip but I was able to keep them behind
“I am really happy that my confidence in the car has come back this weekend. I leave Budapest feeling much more comfortable after moving back to the previous rear suspension. Yesterday’s Qualifying was just a shame as the pace was clearly there.
“We can take this feeling into the second half of the season and look forward to it with optimism now.”
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff was quick to praise his rookie driver too, after Antonelli drove a mature race to keep some faster cars behind – and continued to learn and develop as a driver.
“Today hanging him out there for tyre survival was another part of the development that he needs to go through,” Wolff said.
“He scored a point, he defended against Hadjar behind, and I’m satisfied with that. Hopefully we’re going to get strong in the second half of the year.”
Antonelli’s point, plus George Russell’s podium, keep Mercedes in the chase for second in the Teams’ Championship, where they currently trail Ferrari by 24 points.
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