Kimi Antonelli showed great speed during the Free Practice sessions of the Saudi Arabian GP in Jeddah. The circuit is one of the most challenging on the calendar, and the Italian’s advantage is having a Mercedes with very precise front-end grip. So far, no mistakes apart from a light touch with the wall at the final corner, which did not cause any damage to his car. The gap to George Russell remains around two tenths, which is certainly a positive result given the difficulty of the track and his limited experience.
Kimi Antonelli’s comments
Kimi Antonelli shared his thoughts on the Jeddah track after the first two Free Practice sessions. The young Italian talent is steadily gaining confidence in his Mercedes, and his on-track progress is becoming more visible. While still aiming for his first Formula 1 podium, Kimi continues to improve without making mistakes, showing he has what it takes to drive for a top team.
“It was quite a tough day today. It was difficult to put the laps together, but I’m happy with what we managed to achieve. We focused a lot on the details and I was able to improve my confidence on track. This is a circuit that demands a lot of confidence in high-speed corners, and you need to get really close to the walls. Overall, it went well even though I got a bit too close to the wall at the final corner on my last attempt on the red tyres in FP2.”
“I’m looking forward to the rest of the weekend now. It looks like it’s a tight fight with our rivals behind the McLaren cars. We don’t know the fuel loads or engine modes of the others, so we just have to focus on ourselves. We’ll work hard overnight to analyze the data and try to come back stronger tomorrow.” – the young Italian driver concluded following the second free practice session for the 2025 Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, which was held at the 6.174-kilometre Jeddah Corniche Circuit on Friday.
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