Kimi Antonelli: turn 1 error costs big, but he’s nearly on George Russell’s pace in Jeddah. Andrea Kimi Antonelli finishes fifth in Jeddah qualifying.

George Russell catches the eye as he has taken up the mantle of Mercedes team leader from Lewis Hamilton and is proving it with results. But within the Brackley team, there’s another driver who, race after race, is steadily and quickly stepping up his game. That driver is Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

If in his first few appearances in F1 he had already shown strong race pace but lacked understanding of the Soft tyres over a single lap, in Jeddah the Bologna native made excellent progress.

Only a mistake in Turn 1 during his decisive Q3 attempt denied him a second-row spot. The fifth place is still satisfying, but carries a hint of frustration, knowing he had more potential than he was able to show.

“It was a good progression. It’s special to drive on a track like this during qualifying. You’re going flat out. But it’s really a shame about my last lap in Q3,” said Andrea at the end of qualifying in Jeddah.

“I need to understand what I did wrong, but I definitely made a mistake in the first corner and, based on the delta I saw, I lost three tenths, three and a half. So that wasn’t ideal. But above all, I’m trying to push more and more to reach the limit and understand the car’s limit.”

“But yes, I’m disappointed with the mistake because I felt I had the pace. But now it’s all about details and putting everything together. And yeah, in the end I’m fifth and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Another fact involves George Russell, Antonelli’s benchmark this season. The two ended qualifying in Saudi Arabia with a gap of over four tenths, but without the Italian’s major error, the gap would have been minimal.

And that’s excellent news for Kimi Antonelli, because George Russell is currently performing better than he ever has in Formula 1.

“I feel closer and closer to George in qualifying. I’m getting closer to him. I can sense it. Clearly he’s driving fantastically, his pace is really impressive. So that’s a positive thing, because it allows me to push myself even more to try to close the gap to him. But now, as I said, it’s about putting it all together.” – he explained at the end of the qualifying session for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix – “Right now, I’m happy with how close I am to George. But clearly my goal is to do even better than him. It’s a tough goal though, because he’s really, really strong.”