Kimi Antonelli opens up on emotional toll of home F1 race: “I didn’t have as much energy”

Kimi Antonelli has admitted he was affected by the additional pressure of racing on home turf for the first time in his F1 career at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Antonelli struggled for pace throughout the weekend at Imola, failing to make it into Q3.

The Italian was in the running for a top 10 finish after benefitting from the timing of the Virtual Safety Car.

Antonelli ran ahead of teammate George Russell before a throttle issue put him out of the race.

1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve criticised Antonelli for bringing over 20 of his classmates to Imola on Thursday.

The Canadian suggested that it impacted Antonelli’s performance, adding unneeded distractions.

Speaking after the race on Sunday, Antonelli conceded that he “didn’t manage things the best” across the weekend.

“A really intense weekend, mentally and emotionally and I think on my side I didn’t manage things the best,” he said.

“I think especially on trying to save energy, I didn’t do a really good job on that and I could feel it affect a little bit the driving as well because I could feel I didn’t have as much energy. Definitely on that side was a really good learning ahead of next home race.”

Antonelli had “high hopes” before DNF

Antonelli ran inside the top six before his technical issue.

The Italian was ahead of the two Ferraris but lost out to Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc as he struggled for pace.

Antonelli conceded that he had “high hopes” for the second half of the race after finding himself up the order.

“Definitely was not the happiest of endings,” Antonelli added. “It was difficult, I mean first thing was mainly stuck in the DRS train and obviously the tyres took a hit so was just trying to hang on and then we were lucky with the VSC and then back on the medium.

“To be honest I had high hopes but then after a couple of laps I started to have the throttle issue and then at the end it completely went off. Of course is a shame but it’s things that happen and I think overall the pace was not too bad at the end of the day. Of course with the issue I don’t know how much better it would have been but I was losing, I could feel it quite a lot especially power wise.

“But nothing more I could do and still, was a good learning this weekend and going to see what I can improve as a driver on my side in order to be back stronger in Monaco.”