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Key events
Martin Brundle has been talking to George Russell about Monza, and the decision not to pit when Antonelli did. Russell says he thought it was the right decision at the time, and pays honest tribute to his remarkable teammate: “He is doing an amazing job … the truth is he is faster than me at the moment … You just have to take your hat off.”
It was a similar story in FP3 for Antonelli:
Lewis Hamilton crashed his Ferrari in final practice for the Spanish Grand Prix at Madrid’s new Formula One circuit on Saturday, halting the session with just over half an hour left, while Mercedes’ championship leader Kimi Antonelli was fastest …
The session was red-flagged and the clock then temporarily stopped for barrier repairs with 15 minutes to go. When it restarted, Antonelli knocked Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc off the top of the timesheets with a time of 1min and 32.797sec, 0.166 quicker than the Monegasque …
Haas’s Oliver Bearman then brought out the red flags again in the final minute when he spun and hit the barriers backwards at turn 11, the approach to La Monumental, the circuit’s banked signature curve.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was third quickest ahead of his teammate Lando Norris, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen fifth and Russell sixth.
Red Bull’s Liam Lawson and Audi’s Nico Hülkenberg were seventh and eighth, with Hamilton ninth and Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto completing the top 10.
Qualifying followed two hours later and will be crucial for Sunday’s race, with overtaking likely to be difficult on a challenging layout that Russell said on Friday had less margin for error than Monaco because of the close walls but higher speeds involved.
Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team principal, said: “Nobody really knows what to expect. The session was tight. It’s about putting a lap together without mistakes and traffic.” Reuters
Right, half an hour to go till qualifying. Lewis Hamilton and Oliver Bearman were not the first to crash in F1 practice. Though Friday’s first session passed off quietly, Arvid Lindblad went off in FP2 … while Antonelli went serenely on:
Kimi Antonelli lapped fastest for Mercedes in free practice at Madrid’s new Spanish Grand Prix circuit on Friday, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton close behind.
Second in a first practice led by teammate George Russell, Antonelli then set the pace in a later session halted briefly by Racing Bulls’ British rookie Arvid Lindblad becoming the first F1 driver to crash at the Madring and bring out red flags.
“It is a very cool circuit to drive around. It is a real challenge for us as drivers, with lots of high-speed corners and walls close by,” said Antonelli.
Antonelli’s best lap of 1min 33.662sec was 0.113 quicker than Leclerc’s fastest effort. Hamilton was 0.149 off the pace with Lindblad fourth despite the crash ending his session with 24 minutes to go.
The 19-year-old lost control of the rear of the car and smashed into the barriers sideways at turn 13.
“It looked quite bad from the outside, but thankfully the impact wasn’t too heavy and I feel completely fine. There’s some damage to the car, so I apologise to the team for the extra work they’ll have to do tonight,” said Lindblad. Reuters
There were suggestions Hamilton might face a penalty for trying to drive back to the pits with a damaged car but Sky F1 reports he is in the clear.
Preamble
Kimi Antonelli does not need luck. Last year his promotion to the second seat at Mercedes looked premature and he was exposed on occasion, but he thoroughly absorbed every lesson and is a deserved leader of the title race. But fortune has favoured him too, whether indirectly – such as the catalogue of agonies suffered by his teammate George Russell, who would otherwise be far closer in the standings than 66 points – or directly, as was the case with a red flag and a virtual safety car in last Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix, which enabled him to turn 19th place on the grid into a win.
Antonelli does not hesitate to credit Toto Wolff and the rest of the Mercedes team, not just for producing the car. The biggest decision was promoting an 18-year-old into the seat for last season, but even in smaller ones they have been vindicated, such as choosing Monza, with its openings for overtaking, as the venue for Antonelli to take the penalties for utilising new power unit components.
But with Antonelli winning in such unpropitious circumstances, the title race – which looked as if it could open up after Lando Norris’s back-to-back wins – could soon be a procession. Maybe what F1 needs right now is a new track to spice things up.
Enter the Madring, which may or may not prove an unfortunate bit of nominative determinism. As Giles Richards reports, Russell described the circuit as “mental” after watching Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak crash in F2 practice:
Russell observed the Madring was set to be an even sterner test than Monaco. “I would put this as a circuit that has less margin, purely because of the speed,” he said. “In Monaco the walls are closer but because you’re going slower – if you make a mistake you’re not into the wall as quickly, and you can recover it sometimes. It’s more lock-up. Here, there’s less margin.”
The issue, explained Russell, was that the fast corners were combined with the angles of the barriers on exit. “You see at this barrier, it’s kind of like coming back on to the track,” he said, indicating where the smoking wreckage of Inthraphuvasak’s car was sitting. “So if you are to go wide and hit the wall, you’re not hitting it at the same angle as the car is going. The car is going towards the wall but the wall is sort of coming in.”
Oliver Bearman certainly found it testing in Saturday’s FP3, and so did Lewis Hamilton:
Lewis Hamilton crashed his Ferrari in final practice for the Spanish Grand Prix at Madrid’s new Formula One circuit on Saturday, bringing the session to a halt with just over half an hour remaining.
The seven-times world champion locked up and went into the barriers at the final corner. He managed to reverse out and tried to get the damaged Ferrari back to the Madring pitlane, virtually a whole lap, while ignoring team instructions to stop.
The Briton eventually did pull over, with the front wing still wedged under the car which also had a punctured front right tyre.
“Stop the car. Stop in the safest place possible,” he had been told earlier.
“If I can make it back I will. If not, I will do it safely,” replied Hamilton, who returned to the pits on the back of a moped after parking up. Press Association
A hybrid of streets and purpose-built sections, Madrid’s new circuit is certainly a challenge. Join me from 2.30pm BST in the buildup to the 3pm start to Spanish Grand Prix qualifying, and in the meantime here’s Giles’s full on-the-ground look at the Madring.
