Kimi Antonelli secured another pole position in Formula 1, but admitted surprise at the advantage built in Suzuka. The Mercedes driver secured first position with a comfortable margin over his teammate, George Russell, a result that was not expected by the Italian.
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Antonelli clocked 1:28.778 in the qualifying session for the Japanese GP, opening up a lead of almost three-tenths over his teammate. Russell was unable to threaten pole, took P2, and even ran the risk of losing the front row to McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.
After the session, Antonelli highlighted that the unexpected difference is linked to the characteristics of the current regulations. According to him, performance variations can happen quickly, which explains the margin obtained in the qualifying session: “With these regulations it is very easy to gain or lose three-tenths, whatever the difference was. It’s very easy to gain and lose time, so it was the same for me in Melbourne. But George is very fast, he has been very fast here and we will see tomorrow in the race how it goes,” said the young Italian.
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While Antonelli commented on the internal gap, Russell turned his attention to the battle with his rivals. The Briton highlighted that the qualifying session was tighter than the team expected, especially given the performance of Ferrari and McLaren: “The session was very tight between Ferrari and McLaren the whole time, so that was probably a surprise for us. We had a very strong FP3, we thought we had a margin over the competitors,” said the Briton.
Despite this, Russell highlighted the team’s positive result: “We are still in P1 and P2, so that’s great, but clearly the others are closing in,” he concluded, indicating that the fight for victory in the Japanese GP could be more balanced than Antonelli’s pole position suggested.
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