Antonelli relieved with P2 recovery in Miami Sprint Qualifying after ‘messy session’ for Mercedes

Kimi Antonelli was left with a feeling of relief over his and Mercedes’ recovery to second position during Sprint Qualifying in Miami, after a “messy session” where he “struggled a lot” to extract pace from the W17.

Antonelli headed into the weekend suggesting that Mercedes “might have to fight quite a bit more”, given the push from their rivals to close the gap to the front – and the significant updates McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull have all unleashed.

It proved to be an even more challenging first day for the Silver Arrows than anticipated, however, with technical issues hampering their Free Practice programme, and preventing Antonelli from running the soft compound tyre.

When the first grid-deciding session of the weekend got under way, Mercedes found themselves in a fierce battle with the McLarens, Ferraris and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen for pole position, with reigning World Champion Lando Norris coming out on top.

After struggling for grip on the medium tyres through SQ1 and SQ2, championship leader Antonelli managed to salvage second on the grid with his sole SQ3 lap on the softs, while team mate Russell had to settle for sixth.

“It was a pretty messy session,” admitted Antonelli when he spoke to the media afterwards. “I struggled a lot with the car. On the medium I couldn’t get a good lap in, and then on the softs all of a sudden the car became more alive, I felt more comfortable.

“Of course, it was a shame not to try the soft in FP1. I think there was a little bit left on the table. But I think despite everything it was a decent result, and with the team we did a great job on recovering.

“Now we look forward to tomorrow. Definitely we’ll dig deep tonight to see what we can do better in order to be faster tomorrow.”

Quizzed on the pace shown by McLaren and Ferrari in particular, Antonelli repeated his comments from Thursday’s media sessions, but remains hopeful that Mercedes can still challenge for overall honours in Florida.

“We were expecting this weekend to be quite a bit tougher, also because those teams, everyone brought major upgrades, which obviously they closed the gap massively or even went in front of us,” he said.

“Definitely the McLarens, they’ve got the same power unit as us, and they improve a lot the car, so it was expected for them to be at the front. But I think we can be in the fight, and that’s what we’re going to try to do tomorrow and then on Sunday as well.”