British GP: Reality check for Britons as Antonelli looks in different league
Hopes of a home win on what is expected to be a record-breaking weekend for Silverstone nosedived on Saturday as Kimi Antonelli took pole for Sunday’s race, having already claimed a convincing victory in the sprint.
The day proved to be something of a reality check after all the optimism created by Lewis Hamilton’s sprint qualifying pole on Friday. Charles Leclerc took second on the grid, two tenths quicker than Ferrari team-mate Hamilton in third, and Mercedes’ George Russell was nearly four tenths off the pace of team-mate Antonelli in fourth.
Hamilton and Russell will have to be either very good or very lucky to claim victory from the second row, especially with Antonelli in the form he is in. His race pace looked far superior to the Ferrari’s in the sprint race earlier on Saturday.
Hamilton had got off to a good start in the 17-lap race, defending robustly from Antonelli into turn one. But the seven-time world champion was powerless to prevent the Mercedes from cruising past him into Stowe on lap eight.
Antonelli initially feinted as if to overtake into Brooklands, forcing Hamilton to deploy energy to defend, before powering past him on the back straight.
The Italian then wasted little time in breaking the one-second gap to Hamilton – in which drivers can deploy “overtake mode”. He was able to cruise to victory by nearly three seconds, setting the fastest lap on the final lap.
“In the sprint we definitely had the faster car, especially on deg [degradation] with the tyres,” Antonelli said. “Hopefully we can keep that for tomorrow as well.”
Silverstone is anticipating an all-time record crowd of 565,000 across the entire weekend. But it looks set to be disappointed in terms of getting a British winner.
Hamilton and Leclerc may have to gang up on Antonelli if they are to stand any chance, running offset strategies, although the Briton did not sound all that optimistic.
“Nothing’s changed from this morning to now, or will change from today to tomorrow,” Hamilton said. “If [Kimi] gets it right he will be gone.”
Russell will be even more concerned than Hamilton. After finishing runner-up in Spain and then winning in Austria, he said he was confident he had worked out why he was blowing hot and cold in the car. But he has not looked happy all weekend. He finished fourth in the sprint, and again in qualifying. That was after going off in Q1 and sliding through the gravel into the barrier, necessitating a new front wing. “That was very weird. Have never locked up there in my whole career,” he said over his radio.
He sounded completely befuddled at the finish. “I don’t know,” he said of his Q1 lock-up. “I’ve raced here for 12 years and I have never locked up once in that corner before. We made some changes to the set-up, it was probably more extreme than I thought. I don’t know.
“This whole weekend we’ve been struggling with straight-line speed, we don’t know why. There’s a couple of tenths over the lap compared to the other Mercedes car. The team are working super hard to try to understand. [It’s] not making things easier.”
Asked whether he could fight for the win on Sunday, he sounded equally gloomy. “If I’ve got the straight-line speed deficit, no. If I’m losing 5km/h in the straight, you cannot fight.”
Russell was far from the only nonplussed driver. Red Bull’s four-time world champion Max Verstappen qualified seventh, two places and 0.15sec slower than his team-mate Isack Hadjar.
McLaren, meanwhile, were nowhere, as Lando Norris qualified sixth, 0.766sec slower than Antonelli, with Oscar Piastri even further back in eighth, 0.921sec off the pace. Significant margins.
There is some chatter about McLaren being the only Mercedes customer team without the latest Mercedes power unit, but they are going to need more than that.
They are all going to have their work cut out catching Antonelli, who is already 40 points ahead of Russell and 46 ahead of Hamilton in the title race, and who will land another huge blow if he wins, not to mention disappoint nearly 200,000 fans.
At least Hamilton will get two bites at the cherry. He confirmed he would take part in Sunday’s Lego race, which is replacing the traditional drivers’ parade before the main grand prix, despite a pay row behind the scenes which threatened his participation.
[Source: Daily Telegraph]
