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Mercedes teen sensation Kimi Antonelli admits that the race in China was a bit of a struggle for him. The young Italian driver has made his F1 debut this season with a lot of hype.
The debut in Australia was an impressive one for Antonelli. He made his way through the field by keeping his nose clean and came home in P4. The second race was a tougher assignment. The sprint part of the weekend was not as good as he ended the short race behind Yuki Tsunoda in an RB.
The race on Sunday was even worse as Antonelli was overtaken by Esteban Ocon in a spectacular move down the straight and finished the race behind him. Talking to F1TV about the race, Antonelli revealed that his car had incurred damage early in the race, and he was driving more or less a damaged car throughout the event. He said:
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"I struggled this race, (it) was quite difficult to hold on. Already from Lap 1 I felt that something was weird with the car, and then eventually after the race the team told me about the damage."
“It looks like I hit some debris and that affected the performance quite heavily. I struggled with the rear in particular after that and that was something I wasn’t expecting. It definitely hindered my pace, but it was good learning to have to deal with that.”
Everyone has been keeping a keen eye on the driver and how he fares, as he is rated very highly by a lot of people, including the Mercedes senior management.
Kimi Antonelli pinpoints qualifying as the area where he needs to improve most with the Mercedes
Talking about the race, Kimi Antonelli felt that one area where he had to work on the most was qualifying. If he can nail that part of the weekend, then everything else becomes much easier for him.
In the two races this season, the driver has been outqualified on every occasion (two races and one sprint) by teammate George Russell, who has been in stunning form as well. Antonelli said:
"Overall, I’m happy with how I, and the team as a whole, have started the year. I think one of the main points of learning for me has been Qualifying. If I can put it all together on a Saturday then we will be starting further forward, less likely to get involved in incidents, and can maximise the pace of the car.”
It's not been a spectacular start to the career for Antonelli as such, but the driver has been making sure that he brings the car home every time in every race and keeps the nose clean.
