Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli will start the 2025 F1 Saudi Arabian GP from fifth on the grid, after an impressive qualifying session from the young rookie around Jeddah – but he believes more was on the table, as he made a costly mistake in his final Q3 run that cost him up to a third of a second.
Antonelli continued an impressive run of recent form in qualifying – having qualified fourth last time out in Bahrain, before a one-place grid penalty dropped him to fifth on the starting grid – with another fifth place on the grid in Jeddah.
Costly mistake in the first chicane lost him “three and a half” tenths
But whilst the Italian was satisfied with his ongoing progression and confidence gains throughout the weekend in Saudi Arabia, he felt that more could’ve been possible had he nailed his final lap in Q3.
A look at Antonelli’s onboard of his final lap shows two separate oversteer snaps in turns 1 and 2, which corroborates with his assessment that he lost in excess of three and a half tenths in just those two corners – which would’ve given him a comfortable P4 on the grid ahead of Charles Leclerc, and just a over a tenth behind his on-form Mercedes F1 team-mate George Russell, who has tradionally done well at the Saudi Arabian GP:
“Yeah, I mean, it was a good progression [throughout qualifying]. It’s pretty special to drive in a track like this in qualifying. It feels pretty fast.“
“But yeah, it was a shame in the last lap. I need to see what I did wrong, but I did a mistake in turn 1,” he explained. “And on the delta, what I saw was three and a half tenths loss. So obviously it was not ideal, but overall, you know, I’m trying to push more and more the limit and understanding the limit of the grip of the car.“
“[I’m] a bit disappointed, because I feel the pace is getting there, but now it’s more about details and putting it all together.
“Still, P5 at the end of the day, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
Elusive first podium not in his mind ahead of race day in Jeddah
Looking ahead to Sunday’s race, Antonelli is well aware that he can’t be thinking about the end result too much on Sunday in Jeddah. After the disappointment of an ill-timed safety car last time out in Sakhir prevented him scoring a good result from the same P5 starting position – his best in F1 to date – and will instead focus on pre-race preparations for his first-ever Saudi Arabian GP:
“Well, I don’t really want to think about tomorrow’s result,” he said. “Because I was thinking as well last weekend, and then it went terribly wrong.
“So I just want to prepare well and see, you know, what happened last year and tyre management and so on, in order to be ready for the race.”
A clear plan on how to tackle Jeddah’s tough challenge
The young Mercedes F1 rookie has a clear game plan ahead of tomorrow’s Saudi Arabian GP, as he will set his sights on a conservative race, but with an “aggressive” opening lap and keeping pace with the cars ahead as crucial in a race where anything can happen with regards to safety car and even red flags, given the close proximity of the walls:
“Yeah, definitely,” he said when asked if patience will be the key to success in the race. “I mean, lap one, [I’ll] always going to try to be aggressive, to try to gain a place or at least maintain it. And then from there on, trying to build on it and try to keep up with the guys in front.”
