Kimi Antonelli says he has two Ferraris behind him, they will work together
F1 NewsSaturday, 04 July 2026 at 20:49
Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli is wary of the challenge Ferrari will pose during the 2026 British Grand Prix, as Charles Leclerc shares the front row with him and Lewis Hamilton lurks behind in third.
Antonelli has been on fire all Saturday in Silverstone, beating Hamilton in the Sprint Race and going on to dominate Qualifying later on, putting himself in the best position to take win #6 in the 2026 Formula 1 season.
Mercedes had great race pace in the Sprint, and if they can maintain that in Sunday's Grand Prix, Antonelli should have no problem winning, especially if he has a decent start.
But the Italian is not taking anything for granted and expects Ferrari to throw everything at him since both their drivers are behind him while his teammate George Russell is in fourth.
While Ferrari can play the team game since only Hamilton may be in contention for the Championship, Mercedes will have a trickier situation to deal with as both Antonelli and Russell are Title contenders.
Antonelli told Sky Sports F1: "For sure it's not going to be easy because I have two Ferraris behind me and, for sure, they will work together.
"Their pace is good, but ours was strong in the Sprint. Hopefully we can keep that for tomorrow and do a good race," he added.
He later added: "We've had a positive weekend so far, but tomorrow will be a long race. We will need to make a good start and work hard to keep the Ferraris at bay.
"They've shown great pace here at Silverstone, and we will need to be at our best if we want to beat them," he concluded.
Russell baffled by his Q1 crash
Russell suffered from a lockup in Q1, which meant he ended up in the gravel with a broken front wing, and while he recovered to take fourth, he remained baffled by his crash.
"I've raced here for 12 years and never locked up once in that corner before," he said. "We made some changes to the setup, which was probably more extreme than we thought.
"I don't know what happened. It was weird," the Briton maintained.
As for his final qualifying effort, Russell blamed traffic, which meant his tyres weren't in their proper operating window.
He explained: "On my final run, though, I caught some traffic on my out lap and didn't quite get the tyres in the right window.
"That meant that my push lap was compromised from the start, and we had to settle for P4," Russell concluded.
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