For Italian fans, the hope was that Interlagos offered a glimpse of the future. A future in which Kimi Antonelli is consistently able to fight at the very top of Formula 1, beating his teammate and even holding off the phenomenal Max Verstappen.
When the four-time world champion made his final pit stop for fresh soft tires, it was clear he would attempt 17 qualifying-style laps to challenge Kimi Antonelli, who was running on used medium tires, already seven laps older. Super Max managed to close the nine-second gap separating him from the Mercedes driver, but he arrived too late into the DRS zone to make the pass, settling for third place.
Kimi Antonelli’s words
Kimi Antonelli admitted he thought he had lost second place behind Lando Norris, which would have been his career-best result: “Having Max behind was extremely stressful. When he made his last stop and Bono (my race engineer) gave me the gap, I thought I might be done for,” he said.
“He was only nine seconds back, on fresh soft tires, and had a very strong pace. He did an excellent job and in the end put me under real pressure. I had to push to the limit, and it wasn’t easy,” he added. “I did my best, trying to learn as much as possible in each session to improve in the next one. It was so much fun, the support here was incredible, and it was one of the most special weekends I’ve had so far.” – the Italian driver concluded at the end of the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend.
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