Kimi Antonelli is enjoying a productive first season since replacing Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes and even broke a record during the Japanese Grand Prix with his sixth-placed finish
Kimi Antonelli was left thrilled after breaking Max Verstappen’s long-standing F1 record in Japan. The Mercedes youngster enjoyed an excellent race in Suzuka having finished sixth.
It was his third eye-catching performance in succession having claimed fourth spot in Australia on the opening weekend, before another sixth-placed finish in China. His performance in Japan was all the more impressive after he led briefly after Verstappen and the pack decided to pit midway through the race.
And at just 18 years and 224 days old, that saw Antonelli become the youngest driver ever to lead a race in F1. Verstappen had previously held that record having been four days older than the Italian youngster.
And speaking after the Japanese GP, Antonelli said: “It was a nice feeling to lead the race for a few laps and become the youngest driver in F1 history to have done so. The next goal is to do that on the only lap that matters: the final one.”
“Every time I get in the car, I am building my learning and feeling more comfortable,” he added. “Hopefully we can keep improving and begin to fight for some of the positions further forward than we managed today.”
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Mercedes chief Bradley Lord was full of praise for Antonelli and his performance. “He has built his confidence over the weekend at a demanding track and achieved a solid result,” Lord said. “His development is encouraging to see and it’s a third consecutive strong race performance from him.”
Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes trackside engineering director, is also among those to have praised Antonelli for his promising start. Speaking ahead of the Japanese GP, he said: “From the first time we put him in an F1 car, you could see he was going to be a decent F1 driver and we had high expectations.
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“If you look at how he performed in that wet race in Melbourne, that was quite exceptional for someone in their first race. And while we did a lot of mileage with him in testing, he’s not running with other cars, so this is the first opportunity you can put him in those racing situations.
“He was unlucky that he had damage to his car in Melbourne qualifying. Unlucky that he had damage on lap one in the race in China. But from what we’ve seen, really impressed and reassuring that he’s only going to get better from where he is already.”
Antonelli now sits fifth in the drivers standings across what has been an impressive debut Mercedes campaign since replacing Lewis Hamilton. He has already compiled 30 points from three races – a total he will be aiming to add to next weekend in Bahrain.
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