Andrea Kimi Antonelli mentioned he “drove like my grandmother” after securing a fifth-placed end on the Components 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
After his Monza exploits from the again of the grid to win his residence race, simply two weeks in the past, Antonelli was slated to begin the 51-lap race at Baku from sixteenth on the grid.
Crashing out of Q1 on Friday, Antonelli began the Azerbaijan GP just about on the backfoot in comparison with his pole-sitter team-mate George Russell.
The chaos that ensued in the course of the race, nevertheless, allowed Antonelli to mount a stellar comeback, taking the chequered flag in fifth.
The 20-year-old picked up flooring harm after contact with the Haas of Oliver Bearman on the Security Automotive restart, into Flip 1.
This, Antonelli believes, meant P5 on the highway was the perfect he was able to extracting from his W17.
“Yeah, no, it was unhealthy positioning and… However yeah, at present I used to be driving a bit like my grandmother at present,” he joked with media.
“Simply harm [control]. You recognize, simply didn’t take a threat. Earlier than making a transfer, I used to be ensuring that I may go for it.
“However on the identical time, after the restart, I had an enormous flooring harm. My complete left facet was gone with the contact. After that, the automobile was very sketchy to drive.
“Nonetheless tried to get to P4, however all in all, it’s a kind of days the place you must be pleased with P5.”
Kimi Antonelli particulars why ‘all or nothing’ mindset modified “in a short time” for him at F1 Azerbaijan GP
After his qualifying mishap on Friday, Antonelli had mentioned he had “nothing to lose” going into the race.
However he admitted that seeing his tempo, comparative to the sector round him, meant he had modified his mindset in a short time.
The Mercedes driver discovered it tough to make strikes on outright tempo differential and somewhat tried preserve his W17 between the white traces, because the others round him struggled, to make his positive aspects.
“If I had the tempo, it might have been completely different. If I had the identical tempo as Monza or in earlier races, it might have been completely different,” Antonelli defined.
“It could have been simply full assault. However at present I realised very early that, initially, it was loads tougher to overhaul. With a [train of cars] all in overtake mode.
“After which I didn’t have the identical tempo as I had beforehand. The mindset modified in a short time. And likewise seeing so many individuals doing errors, you form of pull again a bit bit.
“As a result of at present I simply took benefit of everybody else’s mistake and simply moved ahead.”
As Russell took the race win, by the slimmest of margins, from Max Verstappen, Antonelli misplaced floor to his Mercedes team-mate within the championship standings.
Heading to the Sepang Worldwide Circuit, Antonelli leads Russell by 66 factors.
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