Andrea Kimi Antonelli said the mistake which sent him off-track in the final laps of the Chinese Grand Prix was the result of him “relaxing too much” in the car.
The Mercedes driver scored his first victory but came close to throwing it away when he went off at the turn 14 hairpin with three laps to go.
“There’s so much that I’ve learned, but first of all it’s never to relax too much because today it went well, but it could have been worse,” said Antonelli after the race. “At the end I opened the room for mistakes and the mistake happened. I just need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Antonelli’s error allowed his team mate George Russell to take around two seconds out of his lead. The pair were separated by five-and-a-half seconds at the end of the race.
Although Antonelli started the race from pole position he briefly lost the lead to Lewis Hamilton. Although he regained the lead on the second lap, and was never headed from then on, Antonelli said starts remain an area where Mercedes need to make progress.
“The start is still our weak point,” said Antonelli, who lost at least seven places in his first two starts prior to today’s race. “To be fair I didn’t go with great confidence because my two previous starts were really bad, so I didn’t know what to expect.
“Obviously, I covered a little bit too much on the inside and left too much space on the outside, so probably need to review that.
“But the pace was still good, especially I felt good on the Hards, even though at the end I relaxed a bit too much and did a mistake which put a bit of pressure. But I still managed to bring it home.”
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2026 Chinese Grand Prix
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