Mercedes reveal damage on Kimi Antonelli’s car led to Q1 exit
Mercedes say damage on Kimi Antonelli's floor hampered his qualifying in Australia.
Mercedes have revealed that damage on Kimi Antonelli's car played a role in his early qualifying exit at the season-opening F1 Australian Grand Prix.
18-year-old F1 rookie Antonelli, on his grand prix debut for Mercedes, was eliminated in the first part of qualifying with the 16th time, while teammate George Russell took fourth on the grid in Melbourne.
Antonelli’s car appeared to be scraping along the ground during his final run in Q1. Mercedes confirmed he picked up damage to the floor of his car which cost him performance and ultimately hampered his chances of progression.
"We saw bib damage on Kimi’s car during his second run. That caused a loss of performance for his final two laps, unfortunately,” Mercedes confirmed to media including Crash.net.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said: "A bit unfortunate for Kimi.
“Run wide, not much wider than before, and broke the bib, the front assembly, but at least tomorrow he's going to have an exciting race - good for learning.”
What caused the damage to Antonelli's car?
Antonelli said gravel on a kerb caused the damage to the floor of his Mercedes.
"I did the same, to be honest, I did the same line as FP3,” the Italian said.
"It's just there was a big plot of gravel on the curb, and when I went through, it picked up quite a bit of damage.
"I mean I was losing quite a bit on the straights first of all because the floor was scrubbing on the track.
"And then I lost quite a bit of air load because obviously the floor was not aligned as well because one part was on the tarmac scratching, so definitely it was quite the changeable conditions.
"I mean obviously it's raining [tomorrow], so many things can happen and we'll try to build something good from there with the progress.
"I think [it] was very, very positive, so that's why it's quite disappointing the result, because I felt we could have gone for a much better position, but it is what it is, and we'll try to move on and see what we can do tomorrow.”
In contrast to Antonelli’s difficult first qualifying, Russell secured a second-row starting slot alongside Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
The Briton will line-up directly behind the dominant McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri who took a one-two.
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