Antonelli's Baku wall clip hands Russell pole as Chadwick warns of 'Kimi of old' habits

Kimi Antonelli will start the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from 16th on the grid after clipping the wall during Q1 at the Baku City Circuit, ending his qualifying session prematurely and allowing Mercedes team-mate George Russell to claim pole position.

The front-left damage was enough to end Antonelli’s session entirely — a costly outcome for a driver who arrived in Baku leading the drivers’ championship by 81 points over Russell, his closest rival.

Sky Sports Formula 1 pundit Jamie Chadwick was pointed in her assessment, arguing the crash was an unnecessary risk given Mercedes’ clear pace advantage at the street circuit.

“I say it’s uncharacteristic. The way we see Kimi drive a lot of the time is that there’s one gear. It’s all in. It’s all everything,” Chadwick said. “Last year we saw that come with mistakes and crashes. This year we have not really seen that from him. So it has felt a bit like Kimi of old in a way and it was like that one gear and he just didn’t really need to do it.”

Chadwick acknowledged that Baku’s unforgiving walls make errors easy to come by, but maintained that the circumstances made the risk unjustifiable. “You are in a Mercedes that was clearly in a league of its own at this track, first lap of Q1, you didn’t need to take that much risk. It just caught him out, the grip that he clearly had at Turn 1.”

Despite the setback, Chadwick suggested Antonelli still has the pace to recover on race day. “He will pay the price, but I think he can still come through tomorrow.”

1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve echoed that cautious optimism while not sparing Antonelli from criticism. “It’s not an inch, it’s a lot. An incredible mistake and he does it on a weekend where his team-mate is in a league of his own,” Villeneuve said. “So, not the best of times for that, but with the current rules they facilitate getting back through the field.”