Kimi Antonelli was absolved of any blame for his false start in the Miami GP Sprint of Formula 1. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff cleared the competitor of fault this Saturday (2).
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The Italian started from second place on the grid, but as soon as the lights went out, he dropped to fifth. However, shortly after he passed teammate George Russell and returned to fourth.
But even finishing fourth, he received a 5-second penalty for track limits and fell to sixth. Regarding the start of the race, Wolff explained that the problem was something on Mercedes’ side and not the driver’s.
“We knew we were a bit misaligned with the updates that will be made in Montreal, but we hoped to maintain the position for now,” he told Sky Sports F1.
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“In terms of lap time, we managed, but obviously, if you have such a bad start, which was not Kimi’s fault but our failure, it’s difficult,” he added.
Antonelli explained that, “for the first time,” he did not make any start errors. “We have been working during the break and, on my part, for the first time, I did everything right with the procedures,” he said.
“So, we need to check what happened – the grip was very low, lower than we expected, but after that, I got very frustrated and didn’t even drive well, made many mistakes. I reached the track limits, which is something I need to avoid, but this weekend it was harder, which was expected with everyone bringing big updates, and now, we need to try to focus as much as possible on qualifying,” he concluded.
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