‘Confidence is high’ – Antonelli energised by 'very fun' P2 finish in Sao Paulo Sprint

Kimi Antonelli has admitted that “confidence is high” at Mercedes despite the competitive nature of the field, after he was able to challenge Lando Norris during the Sprint at Interlagos and secure a P2 finish.

The 19-year-old missed out on pole position by just 0.097s to the lead McLaren, and after a shaky start to the Sprint he was able to settle into second place around the damp circuit.

Following a red flag interlude, Antonelli came under pressure from his team mate George Russell, but the lack of dry patches away from the racing line aided him in defending his position, and he set his sights on a struggling Norris.

With the McLaren on old soft tyres, Antonelli was able to get within DRS range of the Sprint leader for the final five laps, and although he couldn’t find a way past, he crossed the line less than a second behind Norris.

“It was a very fun race,” he said. “There were very tricky conditions, especially at the beginning. We tried to keep the pressure on Lando and just came short but tyre degradation was quite big and wind was picking up during the race so it was a struggle.

“The confidence is high but the field is so tight. At the end yesterday, it was really hard to put a lap together and I believe everyone made a few little mistakes so we’ll see today what we can do. Hopefully we can achieve the same result or even better.”

It was an encouraging result for Mercedes as a whole, with Russell following closely behind in third position to put them on the front foot ahead of an unpredictable Qualifying hour.

The Briton explained: “It was a good race for us both – Kimi did a great job and obviously put Lando under a bit of pressure. P2, P3 was a really good result but we need to try and do the same again this afternoon.

“Qualifying is so tight. It’s very difficult to overtake at the moment so that’s going to be key.”

Questioned on whether the relative lack of rainfall had helped the team take more lessons into the rest of the weekend, Russell replied: “No, it’s so different when you’re doing Qualifying laps versus the consecutive laps. There was a lot of tyre degradation there so at the end it was a bit difficult and I think Lando was struggling.

“We feel good. The temperatures are cool and we know that’s how we like it so let’s see what we can do later.”