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3 hours ago
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Driving with an assured confidence beyond his tender years, Mercedes’s Kimi Antonelli demonstrated he intends to be front and centre in the Formula One world championship battle after claiming a commanding pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix.
The 19-year-old delivered a hugely impressive lap on the mighty Suzuka circuit that rewards drivers who can push to the edge and in so doing beat his Mercedes teammate George Russell into second by a full 0.298-seconds. No little feat given the British driver was struggling with set-up issues on his car.
Antonelli, fast-tracked into Mercedes for his F1 debut last season, is delivering on the promise the team had seen in the young Italian and the pole completes a superlative back to back, after he claimed the top spot and the win at the last round in China. Despite it being only his second year in F1 he trails Russell by just four points in the championship.
The pole lap was typically committed, with Antonelli not shy of throwing his all into it. He might have gone even quicker on his final run in Q3 but for a small lockup at turn 11.
“Let’s go, man!” he exclaimed with no little joy on taking the top spot. “I’m super happy with the session, it was a good one, it was a clean one. I felt very good in the car and every run was improving and improving.”
There was however a more sobering afternoon for the four-time world champion Max Verstappen who was once more left stymied by his underperforming Red Bull.
Verstappen is a master at Suzuka, where he has taken pole and won the last four races and is usually entirely at ease through the demanding high-speed challenge. However with Red Bull still struggling to extract the best performance from their car there was only disappointment for the Dutchman, when he was knocked out in Q2, managing only 11th.
The car was clearly a handful on Verstappen’s last quick runs. “I think there’s something wrong with the car,” he told his engineer. “It’s completely undriveable suddenly in this qualifying.”
He noted afterwards the problems with the car the team were trying to address. “As soon as you really try to push, for me it was just all over the place,” he said. “Really not good and also really doesn’t give you confidence to attack any corner. I was just stuck, I couldn’t push more.
“There are just a few parts in the car that are not working how they should be working. That’s limiting us to even when you make just set-up changes like you used to do in the past, it still doesn’t respond, basically.
“I’m not even frustrated anymore. I’m beyond that. I don’t get upset about it. I don’t get disappointed or frustrated by it anymore with what’s going on.”
Behind the two Mercedes, who completed the team’s third straight lockout of the front row, a challenge from Ferrari failed to materialise. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was in third, a good result for the team but he was over three-10ths behind.
While Charles Leclerc took fourth for Ferrari with his teammate Lewis Hamilton in sixth, Leclerc was still six-10th down. McLaren’s defending world champion, Lando Norris, was in fifth.
Antonelli and Mercedes however were the class of the field, once more demonstrating that the pace advantage they opened the season with remains formidable. The Italian’s first pole in Suzuka once more proved how enormously assured he is in a car that has pace, energy management and a stable platform in which the teenager has great confidence.
On the opening runs in Q3 Antonelli and Russell had set the pace, with the Italian edging out his teammate by just under three-10ths with a 1min 28.778sec lap. Neither could improve for their final laps but nor could the opposition, although McLaren will be enormously pleased in having put at least one car within three-10ths of the leaders, given the issues this season.
Russell was clearly expectant of more, having been complaining of a lack of rear grip but was ultimately pleased to have made the front row after acknowledging the team made a misstep in the set-up.
“We made an adjustment going into qualifying and the car just did not feel the same as it has in the whole weekend,” he said. “It was just mainly through the esses, I couldn’t attack any of the corners, the rear was trying to step out on me throughout.”
It is Antonelli then who holds the whip hand for now, not withstanding the expected fast-start from Ferrari and Russell too being more than aware how vital track position will be in the race, so a frenetic dash down the hill into turns one and two can be expected. A win on Sunday would put Antonelli into the lead of the world championship for the first time, a feat he would doubtless embrace with the same joie de vivre he showed dashing around Suzuka.
Pierre Gasly was in seventh for Alpine, Isack Hadjar eighth for Red Bull, Gabriel Bortoleto an impressive ninth for Audi, with rookie Arvid Lindblad also doing well to take 10th for Racing Bulls.
