“I don’t think it was right”: Antonelli disagreed with Mercedes over third pit stop

Andrea Kimi Antonelli expressed doubt over Mercedes’ strategy as he failed to score for the first time since his Formula 1 debut.

Mercedes appeared to commit Antonelli to a three-stop strategy when he made his second pit stop on the 25th lap of 57 and took a set of soft tyres. Five laps later they called him in again in response to the Safety Car period.

Antonelli questioned the decision when his race engineer Peter Bonnington told him to pit as he approached the final corner. “Are you sure?” he asked. “Affirm,” Bonnington replied.

The Mercedes driver had been running eighth before his final pit stop. As he left the pits for the third time, Antonelli reiterated his doubts over their strategy. “Man, I don’t think it was the right thing,” he said. “Now everyone is in front of me.”

“Let’s see how this all works out,” Bonnington replied. “We were likely to then have to stop again on that previous tyre,” he added. “Everyone will probably be going to the end from here.”

Soon after the restart, Antonelli was forced wide by Carlos Sainz Jnr at turn 11. He later passed both Williams drivers and Jack Doohan but finished one place outside the points behind Oliver Bearman.

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Afterwards Antonelli admitted he was unsure the team had got its strategy correct. “It’s a bit confusing because obviously the first time I got undercut, and that was fine, I was expecting it,” he told the official F1 channel.

“But then obviously when I put the soft [on] after the medium, we did two laps and then there was a Safety Car and I felt I could have stayed out. Because obviously with the Safety Car the tyre would have cooled down anyway and probably with a bit more free air it would have been a different story.”

However he admitted he could have done a better job of looking after his tyres. “I need to review this with the team,” he said. “I think on my side I could have probably chosen a bit more wisely the way I was pushing after the pit stop, just to save a bit more tyre.”

Prior to last weekend the rookie driver scored points in all of his first four races for Mercedes, including three grands prix and the sprint race in China.

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