World championship leader Kimi Antonelli says he will “re-establish the order” over George Russell at this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix after being outperformed by his Mercedes team-mate in Azerbaijan.
Antonelli had finished ahead of Russell in five successive Grands Prix but could only manage fifth in Baku, as the Brit produced his best weekend of the season to claim victory from pole position. The result cut Antonelli’s lead over his Mercedes team-mate to 66 points with eight rounds remaining.
Although he salvaged some points, Antonelli’s performance left plenty of room for improvement ahead of the second leg of the triple-header, with Malaysia set to host the rescheduled Bahrain Grand Prix amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Asked whether Russell is now his only title rival after Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton dropped more than 100 points back, Antonelli said: “He’s always been my rival.
“But I’ll make sure next week I re-establish the order and just make sure that I will be at back at my usual level because this weekend I was driving more like my grandma, so it wasn’t the usual Kimi.
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“Luckily we have another race coming up, and I’m really looking forward to it.”
The 20-year-old Italian endured a scrappy weekend, missing a major chunk of track time in practice because of a technical issue before crashing in the first part of qualifying to leave himself starting from 16th on the grid.
“FP1 I did three laps and then missed the half of FP2,” Antonelli added. “In FP3, I was getting to the rhythm.
“And then in qualifying, that Q1 one lap was actually okay. But I did a mistake, and then again you re-enter in the bad loop.
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“Then in the race, I didn’t have the confidence, and I just at drove 80 per cent the whole time.
“Realistically, I wasn’t there mentally to be able to push 100 per cent as well because I just didn’t have the confidence that I had previous weekends, but it will be much better in Sepang.”
‘Exciting to see battle resume in Malaysia’
Russell underlined his pre-season status as the clear title favourite by winning the season opener in Australia, only to be stunned as Antonelli then claimed the first five victories of his career in successive races.
The Italian remains in control of the title race and has also appeared to hold a race-pace advantage over Russell at almost every circuit.
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That finally changed in Baku, where Russell backed up a solid run of form by being faster than Antonelli at every stage of the weekend.
Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord insists the strength of Russell’s performance won’t amount to a psychological blow for Antonelli.
“I don’t really think it makes a difference,” said Lord, who address the media in Baku in the absence of team boss Toto Wolff.
“I think the drivers, they’re setting themselves their own high standards, and they want to perform to those.
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“One of the great assets and the great strengths of this team is we’ve got two drivers who are capable of fighting at the very front, putting the car on pole, delivering flawless race wins, and that’s part of the strength of the team.
“Kimi put it behind him and did a great job in the race. George did an incredible job out front, and it’ll be exciting to see them going at it in Malaysia.”
Formula 1 heads to Malaysia for the first time since 2017 as it hosts the Bahrain Grand Prix at the Sepang International Circuit – watch live coverage from Friday morning, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime