Kimi Antonelli plays it down: “I’m still confident,” he says

It was a difficult Thursday in Baku for Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who had to deal with a hydraulic failure in his Mercedes on the first day of free practice for the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Bologna-based driver had to replace the power unit as a precaution before the start of the second session.

“We tried to make the most of what we had. We lost a lot of laps in the first free practice session and then another twenty minutes or so in the second session, which is never ideal on a street circuit, but overall we managed to make a good recovery.”

Antonelli still managed to secure second place in the second free practice session, demonstrating that his car is superior to the others: “I felt pretty good in the car. There are certainly some areas to improve, but we’re looking forward to tomorrow with confidence.”

“When I stopped on the track this morning, I put a bit of pressure on the marshals because the car was catching fire a little, and I wanted them to use the fire extinguishers quickly, but fortunately we limited the damage. The marshals did what they could.”