Kimi Antonelli admits Mercedes team call made him 'stressed' before snatching Silverstone pole

Andrea Kimi Antonelli has explained why he was “stressed” on his final Q3 run despite securing pole position in Formula 1 qualifying at the British Grand Prix. 

F1 championship leader Antonelli produced an impressive performance in qualifying to convincingly beat the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton to pole around Silverstone. 

Antonelli secured his fifth pole of the season to maintain Mercedes’ unbeaten streak in qualifying, with the Silver Arrows claiming every pole at the first nine grands prix so far in 2026. 

But not everything went smoothly for Antonelli, who was left frustrated to have been the first driver to start his final lap of the top-10 shootout. 

"I was a bit stressed because I never really like going first for the last run but the last lap was very tidy. It came all together," the Italian teenager said.

“It was very tricky with the wind because it was very gusty and unpredictable. But yeah, we built our way through qualifying, and to bring home pole is very satisfying.”

Antonelli also had to battle front-locking issues and a brake issue in Q2, with the former problem causing his Mercedes team-mate George Russell to go off in Q1. 

“We struggle a little bit with front locking, especially in conditions like today that we have to deal with into Turn 3. Front locking was very easy to achieve. In my Q2, run one, I locked the front,” he explained. 

“But also I had a little issue with the brake pedal. It didn’t respond initially to when I planned to brake. So it also delayed a bit the braking phase.

“To be fair we did some setting adjustments and that helped to regain the confidence on braking.”

Asked if overnight changes were key to Mercedes’ bounce back after Hamilton beat Antonelli to pole in Friday’s sprint qualifying, he replied: “We didn’t change the car at all. 

“It was just about the differential, brake migration, and driving. We worked around it and managed to find a good setting that helped me to progress through qualifying.”

Victory in the sprint enabled Antonelli to extend his championship advantage by three points, and he has a great opportunity to pull even further clear of Russell, who qualified fourth, in Sunday’s main grand prix. 

However, Antonelli is not underestimating the threat posed by the Ferrari pair behind. 

“For sure, it’s not going to be easy,” he admitted. “I’ve got two Ferraris behind me, and for sure they’re going to work together.

“But their pace is good, and ours was strong in the Sprint race. So hopefully we can keep that tomorrow, and hopefully we can do a good race.”