Kimi Antonelli admitted that he was “feeling great” after claiming his maiden Grand Prix pole position during Qualifying in China, with the result seeing the Italian become the sport’s new youngest-ever polesitter.
There were mixed fortunes for the Mercedes drivers across Q3, as George Russell experienced a brief stoppage on track when the segment got underway. While he was able to return to the pits and rejoin the session, it left the Briton with only enough time for one flying lap.
Antonelli had already set the benchmark by this point – and Russell’s sole effort was not enough to topple his team mate, the youngster’s time of 1m 32.064s ultimately bettering Russell by 0.222s.
This makes Antonelli the youngest driver to clinch pole at 19 years, six months and 18 days old, beating previous record holder Sebastian Vettel who was 21 years and 73 days old at the time of his pole at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix.
Asked for his feelings after beating the record – and for his reflections on the session in general – Antonelli said: “I’m feeling great. It was a good session, a good way to end the day after a difficult Sprint.
“Of course there’s a lot of excitement, but the focus is already ahead on tomorrow because there’s a big, big opportunity and I just really want to maximise it.”
In terms of his thinking for Sunday’s Grand Prix, Antonelli is aiming to have a clean getaway – having suffered a difficult start during Saturday’s Sprint.
“I think the start is going to be interesting,” the teenager explained. “I’m going to try not to overcomplicate things, just going to try to have a clean start and the pace is good.
“Just need to also manage the tyres the best way possible because graining could be quite severe tomorrow, so just going to try to stay on top of that. But the main thing is a clean start and then we’ll see from there.”
Speaking earlier after jumping out of the car, Antonelli also shared an insight into how he managed to remain focused when Russell experienced problems.
“I saw he had an issue but I just tried to keep my focus, to stay calm and try to deliver a good lap, which it was at the end.”
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