The Canada F1 qualifying quirk Kimi Antonelli ‘will remember for a long time’

Andrea Kimi Antonelli will “remember that number for a very long time” after being beaten to pole twice at the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix by 0.068 seconds.

The championship leader was beaten to sprint and grand prix pole by Mercedes team-mate George Russell in a pair of tight qualifying sessions.

Kimi Antonelli’s deficit to Russell on both occasions was 0.068s, with the latter pulling out a pole lap on Saturday in qualifying on his final run after a scruffy session.

Commenting on the quirk of his weekend of being beaten twice by the exact same margin, Antonelli said: “Yeah, it was again 68 milliseconds.

“I’m going to remember that number for a very long time. Yeah, I mean, it was a difficult session.

“It started off very strong on used tyres, and then it kind of faded away a little bit throughout the session.

“I had a really bad lap in Q3, really bad first lap, and then second lap, I just tried to put things a bit more together.

“It was very difficult to get the tyres in the right window, especially for lap one.

“So of course, it was a pity to miss out by this close, but I think it was still a decent session and George did a great lap.”

Asked where his Q3 lap went wrong, Antonelli added: “I think it was just really struggling to get the tyres in the right window, working them properly.

“I think that was the main issue for us. And then I had a little missed downshift on the last lap, into Turn 6, which threw me off a little bit. But the rest I think was pretty OK.”

Mercedes swept to pole in both qualifying sessions at Montreal and won the sprint with George Russell, showing that its competitive edge has been maintained with its new upgrade package.

Antonelli noted that he’s had to make minimal changes to the set-up of his updated car, but also believes its full potential hasn’t been realised yet because of how tricky tyre warm-up has been in Canada.

“Not much, to be fair,” he responded when asked how much set-up work he’s had to do.

“I think the package has been working, but it has been changing the balance a little bit.

“I think also this weekend is a bit unique because tyres are so important to get them in the right window.

“So, I think we’re not seeing the full benefit of this new package.

“I think when we go back to Monaco and Barcelona, we will see much better the benefits of this package because here it’s just such a weird condition that I think just by having the tyres in the right window, it makes a big difference.”