Antonelli: Good recovery after problems in Baku

Kimi Antonelli described his performance in the recent practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as a good recovery after a difficult start of the weekend.

Antonelli faced early problems

The Mercedes driver had suffered a hydraulic problem during his FP1 and was forced to stop before the halfway point of the session. Despite this issue, Antonelli succeeded to finish fifth fastest.

His problems didn't stop there, they continued in the FP2 too, as he missed the first half of the session while Mercedes fitted a new power unit after fire damage. Once back on track, Antonelli quickly found his pace and finished second behind his british teammate George Russell.

Mercedes remained confident

Russell topped both practice sessions on Thursday, while the italian finished 0.552 seconds behind him in FP2. Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord, said that the gaps were not representative of the true performance difference between the teams and expected the field to be closer in the qualifying and in the race.

Antonelli said he felt good in the car despite of the lost track time and believed there were still some areas for Mercedes to improve.