Antonelli rues ‘mistake’ that cost him Austria front row as he vows to ‘maximise’ in Sunday’s race

Kimi Antonelli was left to rue a “mistake” that cost him a potential front row grid slot in Qualifying at the Austrian Grand Prix, with the championship leader now focused on “maximising” from P4.

Antonelli had been on the pace throughout the weekend so far at the Red Bull Ring, topping both of Friday’s practice sessions before securing provisional pole during the opening laps of Q3 in Saturday’s Qualifying.

However, as the final runs of the session played out, Antonelli opted to abort his lap when Max Verstappen crashed at Turn 9, the Italian going on to explain that he believed double yellow flags were being waved rather than single.

As such, he was unable to improve on his previous effort and found himself falling back to fourth behind team mate George Russell – who claimed pole position, having lifted at the scene of the yellow flags – as well as the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.

“It was unfortunate, but realistically it was a mistake from my side because I thought I saw double yellows and instead it was a single, so I completely aborted the lap when I could have just done a lift like George did,” Antonelli said after the session.

“But yeah, I think I was a tenth slower than George up to that point, so it still would have been difficult to get pole but at least front row was there.”

Given his speed across the weekend up until that point, Antonelli was quizzed on whether he still felt in the mix for victory in Sunday’s Grand Prix.

“Yeah, for sure,” the 19-year-old responded. “It would have been more ideal to start more at the front, but it is what it is and the most important is that tomorrow we try to get a good start and then maximise from there.”