Kimi Antonelli reacts to Suzuka F1 and FP2: “Result doesn’t reflect Mercedes potential”. Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli finished Friday with the 16th-fastest time in Japan.

A second free practice session with four red flags was certainly not ideal for someone like Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who was discovering the challenging Suzuka circuit for the first time. His first impression was overall positive for the Mercedes driver, who finished the opening session of the Japanese Grand Prix in ninth, just over seven-tenths off the pace.

The Bologna native had a harder time in FP2, which was very fragmented. After Jack Doohan’s serious crash, fortunately without physical consequences, and Fernando Alonso’s off-track excursion, there was also the issue with the grass, which caught fire twice by the track due to sparks from the cars.

These four interruptions meant he could only complete very short runs, making it difficult to put together a good lap, as he only managed 13 laps in total. Kimi admitted to having made a mistake in his qualifying simulation, which is why he ended up 16th, 1.6 seconds behind, but he seems convinced that his W16 has the potential to perform well.

“I have to say that FP1 went quite well, considering that I had to learn the track and everything else. FP2, on the other hand, was a bit of a mess: there were a lot of red flags, and I made a lot of mistakes, especially in the first sector,” Kimi Antonelli said to Sky Sport F1 microphones.

“I made a big mistake with the soft tires and lost a lot of time, but the long run seemed much more competitive, especially the last lap before the final red flag. So, even though the result doesn’t reflect what we could have done, there are positive aspects we can take home, but also a lot to improve,” he added.

His teammate George Russell, who finished second in the morning and sixth in the afternoon, had pointed out how difficult this track was for Mercedes last year, especially because of the bouncing. A situation that seems to have improved, although Kimi does not have a direct comparison: “The car is definitely behaving very well, although I don’t know how it behaved last year. But it seems competitive, so tomorrow it’s up to us to try and get a good result.”