Antonelli reveals why he drove 'under the limit' to salvage fifth from 16th in Baku

Kimi Antonelli salvaged a fifth-place finish at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku despite starting 16th on the grid, the result of a Q1 crash and technical issues that cost him 80 minutes of practice across the opening two sessions.

Speaking ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, the Mercedes driver — who leads the championship by 66 points over team-mate George Russell — described the deliberate choice to manage his pace rather than attack through the field on a street circuit where overtaking opportunities are scarce.

“First of all, I didn’t really like it, driving under the limit,” Antonelli admitted. “I felt a bit too slow, but I think the learning was that sometimes you have to accept this kind of situation. You have to accept to settle for a result that even you didn’t expect or you didn’t want — settle for a P5.”

The 18-year-old acknowledged just how difficult that decision was to make in the heat of the race, given his instinct throughout the season has been to push at every opportunity.

“Trust me, it was very hard to make that decision after the start of the race to just sit back and take the least amount of risks as possible, because I’ve been used to all season to just push. Go for it.”

Baku’s characteristics — long straights but narrow, unforgiving walls — demanded a different approach, one that prevented Antonelli from exploiting Mercedes’ straight-line pace advantage. Instead, he focused on staying clean and capitalising on rivals’ mistakes.

“What I just needed was finishing the race with a decent result just to move on and focus onto the next one,” he said, reflecting on a weekend where “everything was going wrong from FP1.”

After the race, Antonelli was characteristically self-deprecating, joking that he had been “driving a bit like my grandmother today, just damage save mode.”

While Russell took victory from pole in a career-first grand slam, Antonelli’s composed recovery means the points gap between the two Mercedes drivers remains substantial heading into Bahrain. The result underlines a maturity that belies his age — recognising when the fastest lap is not always the smartest one.