‘I had a couple of holes in the floor’ – Antonelli explains how gravel trip cost him ‘big time’ in Dutch GP Sprint Qualifying

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli was left to ponder what might have been after ending Friday’s Sprint Qualifying session at Zandvoort down in fifth position, via a trip through the gravel in the opening phase.

Antonelli, who topped FP1 earlier in the day, ran wide at the penultimate corner on his first lap of SQ1, forcing him back to the pits for car checks, which revealed significant floor damage, and compromised the Italian’s efforts through SQ2 and SQ3.

Asked post-session if he had been affected by the off-track excursion, Antonelli said: “Oh yeah, big time! I had a couple holes in the floor. When I came in, [the team] initially said it was a loss of 25 points [of downforce].

“They tried to repair it as much as possible, but definitely the damage was still there. I was struggling a lot in the low speed [corners]. But it is what it is.

“It was a little bit too much entry speed in the last corner, in that lap one, I lost the rear and went through the gravel. That was pretty much it.

“Obviously also it was not easy to build the confidence back, but still decently close, and we’ll have another go tomorrow.”

Antonelli heads into the Sprint 50 points ahead of nearest title rival Lewis Hamilton, who starts seventh, and 59 points clear of team mate George Russell, who bagged pole position.

Discussing his chances of making up lost ground in the 100-kilometre dash, the 19-year-old added: “We’ll try to do the best race we can. Of course, it’s very close at the front, so it’s not going to be easy to overtake.

“We’ll try to do the best we can, even with the damage, and then from Qualifying we’re going to tidy the car up and go again.”