Kimi Antonelli praised his teammate, George Russell, for his attitude during the Dutch Grand Prix of Formula 1, after Mercedes ordered a position swap in the final moments of the race. The Italian highlighted his teammate’s behavior, who accepted the decision and allowed him to pass into second place.
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The team order came when Lewis Hamilton was rapidly closing in on Russell and threatening to claim P3 on the podium. Russell ended up giving the position to Antonelli, a result that created a six-point gap between the two drivers and left the Italian with a 59-point lead over Russell.
With the result, Antonelli also regained the margin he had lost to Russell during the Sprint race on Saturday. The difference between the two returned to the same level as before the weekend in the Netherlands.
Antonelli, however, stated that the race was complicated from the car’s behavior perspective: “It was a very intense race, I managed to take the lead, and in the first stint, I even felt good, but from the second stint onwards, I simply didn’t have the same feeling with the car,” he said.
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The Mercedes driver said he started to slide a lot and ended up being overtaken by Lando Norris of McLaren, acknowledging that he had no chance to react after that. Even so, he reserved praise for Russell for how he complied with the team’s order: “But then, of course, George was a great teammate and I was very happy that he managed to keep P3 as well,” he added.
Antonelli also pointed out that Mercedes needs to find performance to face McLaren’s progress: “Now, as a team, we need to find a bit more time, because McLaren has taken a big step forward, so we have to keep pushing,” concluded the young Italian driver.
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