Kimi Antonelli returned to Q3 at Monza, in front of his home crowd, setting the sixth-fastest time despite an imperfect lap. Mercedes will run their cars with higher downforce today, focusing on consistency and tyre management, particularly if temperatures rise during the race.
The sixth position achieved by Kimi Antonelli at the end of Monza qualifying carries significant weight. Beyond the timing performance – just 0.043 seconds behind George Russell – it reflected his reaction under a highly challenging scenario. The pressure of a home race, the mistakes in practice, and the memory of last year’s off-track excursion at the Parabolica, his first major disappointment in a Formula 1 car, all added to the tension. Antonelli responded by delivering the car where it deserves to be, and at the end of the session his satisfaction was unmistakable.
“Yes, I’m very happy. Finally a clean qualifying session after a period where Saturdays didn’t always go as I wanted. I’m a little disappointed about the last lap; we tried something different with the tyre temperatures and I struggled in the first sector, especially with the rear. But the last part of the lap was very strong. I recovered well, although there’s still a bit of regret for the time lost at the first Variante and at the Roggia,” Kimi Antonelli said.
The positive result eased the pressure considerably, and Kimi did not hide it. “I won’t lie, before qualifying I was very tense, very nervous, especially after what happened in FP2. I lost the session due to my own mistake and in FP3 I felt like I was starting the weekend from scratch. I’m happy with how I arrived at my final time; it wasn’t easy to find the right distance from the car ahead. In Q1 I was too close, and in the final sector I was sliding too much. In Q3 I was a bit too far. But looking at how it went in T3, I’m happy. I definitely overcame what happened in Parabolica last year.”
The two Mercedes cars will be closely watched over the 53 laps today. Among the top teams, Mercedes chose to set up their cars with higher aerodynamic load, a gamble that could make the difference if temperatures – which are expected to be higher than initially forecast – impact tyre management.
“Some of our rivals chose to set their cars with less downforce,” explained Toto Wolff. “On paper, this should make it harder for us to gain positions. But overall we confirmed a good race pace in the simulations, so we will have to focus on consistency. If we can exploit the pace, then we can aim for something positive.”
Antonelli’s goal is to translate the performance shown so far into a result that allows him to move forward. The biggest challenge remains the first lap, traditionally very chaotic at Monza, a concern made even more pressing by the need to avoid unexpected incidents – the last thing Kimi Antonelli needs today.
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