Antonelli "got a little bit greedy" during Spa sprint qualifying

Having qualified P20 for Saturday’s F1 Sprint at the Belgian Grand Prix, Andrea Kimi Antonelli conceded that he "got a little bit greedy" after going through violently through the gravel trap at Stavelot.

Mercedes opted to use the Hard compound tyre in the sole free practice session on this Sprint weekend, followed by a short single lap run on the Medium.

Having finished that session in P4 and P6 respectively, the Brackley-based outfit had hoped to be fighting for the front rows of the grid in the sprint qualifying for the Spa F1 Sprint.

However, things evolved very differently in late afternoon in Belgium. Kimi Antonelli spun on his first effort in SQ1 and picked up sizeable floor damage which, whilst he was still able to complete a second effort, left him lacking performance and in P20.

George Russell was able to progress to SQ2 but on his solitary effort in that 10-minute segment was unable to extract the necessary performance and finished in P13.

"It was a shame to have our Sprint Qualifying session go the way it did," started Antonelli. "The car was good in FP1 and in the first half of my first lap in SQ1, it was feeling even better.

"Unfortunately, I got a little bit greedy on the throttle at turn 14 and had a spin through the gravel. I picked up damage from that and, despite trying my best on my second lap, the performance wasn’t there in the car to do anymore than we saw.

"It is a shame as we had the potential for a lot more today. It was a mistake from my side but now we will focus on getting the car in a good place for tomorrow’s Qualifying session.'