Energy-starved Kimi Antonelli said he felt unusually tense behind the wheel during qualifying for a likely Mexican Formula One Grand Prix, where he is still recovering from an illness.
Antonelli can win the 2026 drivers’ championship with four rounds remaining if he finishes ninth or higher in Mexico after a highly controlled season in which he vastly outperformed teammate George Russell.
However, Antonelli was unusually the slowest Mercedes in qualifying in Mexico, finishing 0.184 slower than Russell and three places behind, although he salvaged one due to Max Verstappen’s one-place grid penalty.
Part of the reason was that Antonelli didn’t fully recover from his illness, causing him to miss Thursday’s media day – but things didn’t go as smoothly as usual in the car either.
“I feel very tired, to be honest I haven’t fully recovered yet,” Antonelli explained.
“It hasn’t been an easy weekend to be honest, and I’ve definitely been a little more tense than usual, especially when you keep hearing, everywhere you go, at all times of the day, the same thing, and people saying that (the title is) already done.
“And knowing me…I tried to block out that noise as much as possible, but it wasn’t easy.
“Of course I was a little more tense today, but I felt good in Q2, especially with the worn tires. Then in Q3 with the new tires, I had difficulty completing the lap, just finding grip.
“But I think we have a good chance tomorrow, still P4, and we saved a set of new tires, so hopefully we can use that and move forward.”
Antonelli said he felt “very bad” Thursday with “a high fever and stomach problems.”
He added: “Now I feel good, just low on energy.
“I’m feeling quite tired, so it’s going to be important to try to sleep well, because I haven’t slept well these days, and hopefully tomorrow I’ll have more energy.”
For Saturday night, Antonelli said he’s going to “bombard me with melatonin, so hopefully I’ll get a good 10 hours of sleep.”
Where did he lose time against Russell?
Antonelli wasn’t using the narrow window of the upgraded Mercedes as an excuse, because “it’s the same as Austin, Singapore and Malaysia.”
He added: “Today also the tires played an important role, but also I didn’t really get the lap; I made a lot of mistakes here and there.
“So obviously it’s disappointing, but we’re going to try to sleep well tonight, and I’m aware that I definitely didn’t drive well.
“I felt like at the start of qualifying I didn’t feel good and I felt a little bit low on energy, so that’s definitely not an excuse, but it’s definitely not my best performance.”
Antonelli wasted little time against Russell in a few places rather than there being just one obvious area where he was bleeding time.
He said “Ah damn” when race engineer Peter Bonnington told him about his fifth place, who replied “Yeah, that’s exactly what I thought” – and told Antonelli the losses were “mainly in turns 5 and 6, then a little in (laps) 8/9”.
Gn sports
