Kimi Antonelli has given a frank account of how he overcame a mental block to secure the best-ever starting position of his young F1 career.
Throughout practice, Antonelli struggled on his first visit to Suzuka having missed out on a Super Formula test due to illness, and was in danger of an early elimination in Q1, but safely made it through.
He ultimately claimed sixth place on the grid for a career-best after 16th and eighth in Australia and China, 0.237s behind team-mate George Russell on an all-Mercedes third row.
Antonelli is the highest-placed of the rookies on the F1 grid this season, and was one of three to make Q3 along with seventh-placed Isack Hadjar and Ollie Bearman in 10th, but the result was not without problems for the Italian as he frankly admitted.
“I am happy with how the session went, but on the other side, I am disappointed because I had to make such a step in driving from free practice,” Antonelli told media including RacingNews365.
‘I was very lost in practice, I really had no confidence to push more and to progress, and I was kind of stuck from where I finished in FP1.
“I had to go into qualifying with very little confidence and having to make a big step in driving, but I am getting there step-by-step.
“It is definitely a good lesson ahead of the race, but it is not easy in the first sector as it is quite narrow, but you need to get the timing right with all the turning points.
“But with the set-up, we started quite safe because I didn’t have the confidence, but the track was improving and cooling down, and I didn’t have the courage to push the set-up even further.
“It is really tough when you are stuck there and you see that you are really struggling to make steps, mentally it is difficult, especially when you see that you have to make a massive step in driving.
“So I had to dig really deep and try to focus on what I had to do, and eventually it was a decent lap, but it was far from perfect, but I cannot complain about it either.”
