Antonelli vows to take lessons from ‘worst weekend of the season’ in Azerbaijan

Kimi Antonelli made clear that the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend “taught me a lot” after enduring his “worst weekend of the season” on Baku’s streets.

Antonelli’s start to the weekend was hampered by technical problems in practice before he dramatically crashed out in the opening phase of Qualifying – leaving him down in 16th on the grid, with team mate George Russell on pole.

While Antonelli recovered to fifth position on race day, Russell’s pole-to-victory drive means the Italian’s championship lead has been cut from 81 points to 66.

Reflecting on his race, and the event as a whole, Antonelli said: “I think it’s one of those days where you have to be happy with P5. Obviously it was the worst weekend, by far, of the season.

“I was just… I felt always a step behind, and especially with the mistake in Qualifying, the confidence level was not high. In today’s race I just tried to… today was about damage limitation.

“I didn’t have strong pace, and also after [contact with Haas’ Ollie Bearman at] the Safety Car restart I was carrying big damage, big floor damage.

“It was not easy out there, but I just did my best.”

F1 will move on to Malaysia and Singapore over the next two weekends, as the season heads into a busy final phase – and Antonelli is hopeful that Azerbaijan will turn out to be only a blip in the road.

“I think this weekend taught me a lot,” he said. “I think in many occasions this weekend… I don’t know, probably also with the mindset I was not in the best pace.

“I’ll just make sure that next weekend we get back at the right level.”