Kimi Antonelli has admitted that he experienced a 52G impact when he collided with the Tecpro barrier earlier in Free Practice 1 in Italy.
The 18-year-old had taken the wheel of George Russell’s Mercedes as part of the team’s mandatory young driver practice running.
Antonelli is expected to be confirmed as Russell’s team-mate for 2025 potentially as early as Saturday in Italy.
His Friday outing was his first on a grand prix weekend, having previously driven F1 machinery in an extensive private testing program in readiness for a potential race promotion next season.
“What a day. First FP1 done,” the highly-rated Italian began.
“Unfortunately, it ended quite quickly because of the crash – it was quite a big one, around 52Gs.
“Really sorry to the team and George for making them work afterwards.
“Just a mistake by my side, just pushing a bit too much for the conditions,” he added.
“I should have build the run a bit more progressively but definitely learned for next time.
“Not feeling super well at the moment, just going to go back and try to rest and try to focus for the rest of the weekend, because there’s still some races to go, and we’re going to still try to get a good result.”
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Speaking following opening practice, team boss Toto Wolff suggested the Mexico City Grand Prix would be Antonelli’s next outing, but that it was not yet locked in.
The Austrian was also quick to defend his young driver, having seemingly forgiven him over the radio immediately following the crash.
“Most importantly, he’s okay, because the crash was 45G,” Wolff said.
“It’s unfortunate, because I guess having had an hour to run, we would have seen some good performances.
“That’s what we always said: he’s a rookie, he’s very young, we are prepared to invest into his future and these moments, they will happen and they will continue to happen next year.
“But there will also be a lot of highlights and I think what we’ve seen today was….
“We’d rather have a problem in slowing him down than making him faster because what we’ve seen from one and a half laps is just astonishing.”
Antonelli topped the session with his first flying lap, though then took little further part as he crashed out soon after.
With his Free Practice 1 session complete, Antonelli reverted to his role in Formula 2 with Prema, where he qualified sixth for Sunday’s Feature race.
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