Kimi Antonelli rued the mistake he made during the first session of sprint qualifying at the Dutch Grand Prix, saying it resulted in damage that cost him performance for the rest of the session.
The championship leader qualified fifth for Saturday’s sprint race with a lap time 0.227 seconds off Mercedes teammate George Russell, who secured pole position.
Antonelli made a mistake entering Turn 13 of his first lap in SQ1, forcing him wide and through the gravel on the outside of the corner.
“I had a couple of holes in the floor,” Antonelli said of the damage to the underside of his car. “When I came in, they initially said it was a loss of 25 points [of downforce] and then they tried to repair as much as possible, but definitely damage was still there and I was struggling a lot in the low-speed.
“It is what it is. I had a little bit too much entry speed into the last corner in that lap and lost the rear and went through the gravel and that was pretty much it. Also it was not easy to build the confidence back, but it was still decently close and we will have another go tomorrow.”
Team principal Toto Wolff confirmed the downforce loss -- measured by the team in points -- as a result of the mistake, but said Mercedes’ mechanics were able to patch up the floor for the following two sessions of sprint qualifying.
“It was quite a big hit. We lost 20 points with a hole in the floor, but we managed to patch it up and it looked to be completely intact afterwards,” Wolff said.
“It’s so close and the gaps are so tiny and he made a little bit of a mistake into Turn 11 trying to push too hard on the entry and it can go quickly.”
Antonelli doubts he will be able to make much progress in Sunday’s 24-lap sprint race which begins at 11 a.m. BST.
