Kimi Antonelli continues to make progress as his Formula 1 rookie season unfolds, and his three top six finishes represent a decent start.
The Japanese GP was another milestone as thanks to a late pit stop he led the race and was then able to set fastest lap on his fresher rubber on his way to sixth place. In both instances he became the youngest F1 driver to log those achievements.
Suzuka was also the second time in three starts that he has crossed the line just behind Mercedes team mate George Russell.
In Australia after a stop-start rain and safety car affected race he was fourth with a gap of 1.6 seconds, and this time in a straightforward contest with no interruptions it was just 1.3 seconds.
The outlier is China, where Antonelli suffered floor damage on the first lap and was ultimately five places and 42.6 seconds adrift of his team mate at the flag, although two disqualifications ahead moved him up the order.
A strong race performance in Japan came after he admitted he was struggling in practice until things came together in qualifying.
“Much, much happier with today,” he said when I asked him about his afternoon. “Much better than China. I was really happy about the pace. Finally, we showed some good pace, consistency, especially on the hard.
“On the medium, the first 15 laps were a little bit of a struggle. But then once I got in free air, the pace improved quite a lot. And then once I went on the hard it was another step forward. And so really happy with that.”
He didn’t start the race with the intention of doing a long first stint.
“I have to tell you, the plan was different, it was to stop earlier, but as the pace was improving lap-by-lap and consistent, we decided to stay, because we had no threat from behind and then we just tried something different.
“I’m not gonna lie, at one point medium, it started drizzling. So I was, like, really hoping for some rain, but unfortunately it didn’t come. But at the same time, I cannot complain, because today was a really good experience.”
The Italian agreed that his race day was better after things clicked on Saturday.
“Qualifying was a big click, because definitely I was able already in qualifying to feel more the car and push it more,” he said. “And today was another step forward. And I’m really looking forward to explore even more in the next few weekends, because now I have the feeling that I can again play with the car.
“Something that I couldn’t really do in the previous two weekends, just because I was definitely a bit more tense while driving.
“Well now, of course, I’m getting more experience with the tyres and the car itself, so I’m able to feel it more as well. So definitely good boost of confidence ahead of nice weekend.”
Antonelli was familiar with Melbourne from F2, but both Shanghai and Suzuka were both new to him. He now goes to Bahrain, a track he knows well from testing, and he’ll thus have a huge head start compared to previous events. It will be intriguing to see if he can get up to speed sooner.
“Well, definitely I will go into the weekend with a different kind of confidence, because I know the track already. We’ve done it in testing. So definitely I will be more comfortable with the car and the track.
“Of course, conditions I think will be much different than testing, because it’s going to be much, much hotter. So another good learning.
“But also I feel quite lucky to have someone like George, because he’s really been pushing me to do even better. So definitely really looking forward to see how what we can do next weekend.”
Adam Cooper F1 