SINGAPORE — Andrea Kimi Antonelli said he let his emotions get the better of him and overdrove his Mercedes when a front row start seemed there for the taking.
Antonelli will start Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix from fourth, but teammate George Russell will lead the pack away from pole position.
After a strong Q1 and Q2, Antonelli hit traffic during his first Q3 lap and then delivered a scruffy second attempt to line up behind championship leader Oscar Piastri on the second row.
“Yeah, it was good…Well, Q3 wasn’t good,” Antonelli said on Saturday night. “Q1 and Q2 I felt strong. “Q3 I let the my emotions got over and started to drive a bit tense, because I felt I had a real shot to at least front row, because we were quick. But then I started to overdrive and I started to push more and more, starting to carry a lot of speed into the corner.
“But it was too much over the limit. It was a shame, because I looked at the data and most of the corners were quicker, also compared to Q2. But in those few corners I just pushed too much and there were corners where I didn’t have to push anymore, because we were already quick.
“And yeah, I just lost it all. It was a shame. I feel disappointed, because the potential was a lot higher.”
He added: “I think today was a really good lesson, especially in Q3, because sometimes when I sit there so close, then I just always get a bit too excited and don’t really focus as much anymore. I could feel I was driving tense, because I was doing quite a lot of mistakes and I was just chasing the lap time.
“Instead of trying to do everything right, I was just chasing the lap time and did way too many mistakes.”
With Russell starting pole, Antonelli said it shows how fine the margins are.
“It’s always a very fine line on understanding how much you can push. And George has been really strong this year in qualifying especially, because he’s always able to find that limit.
“Myself, especially when I see that I’m super close to get a good result, or like today, like a front row, I start to go a bit over the limit. I think I just need to control myself a bit more and recognise the corner where I can push more and the corner where I don’t need to push any further.”
After his maiden F1 podium at the Canadian Grand Prix in June, Antonelli’s form plummeted in the middle of the year, although he scored a strong fourth position at Baku’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix two weeks ago.
He said despite over-driving in the key moment of qualifying he feels in a better place with the car and insisted the overall mood is positive going into race day.
“I think the European season went wrong for many, many different reasons. I think it started quite bad and then there was a snowball effect for the rest of those races. So it was very particular and also it was quite a difficult moment for me.
“But after Monza, the meeting with the team was good, because it was kind of a wake-up call, which was what I needed. So basically now we’re back on a good trend and I’m feeling more and more confident in the car. It’s exciting.”
