Mercedes Formula 1 rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli reckons his incident in opening practice for the Dutch Grand Prix was the root cause of his poor qualifying result.
The 19-year-old only qualified 11th at Zandvoort, after understeering off at Turn 9 in FP1 which beached his Mercedes in the gravel and brought an early end to his session.
Team-mate George Russell qualified fifth, meanwhile, so Antonelli said what happened in opening practice disrupted his preparation because the pace was otherwise there for more.
“Going off in FP1 so early compromised the rest of the weekend,” said Antonelli. “I found myself always chasing and missed many single laps, so that didn’t help.
“Also having to do a long run this morning also didn’t help. It was all because of my mistake in FP1.
“It was a shame because I was feeling pretty decent in the car and I was actually much closer than the past few races. Just a shame to miss out by so little.
“I think with a clean FP1 it would have been a different weekend, but we’ll try to look forward to tomorrow.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Joe Portlock / LAT Images via Getty Images
Antonelli is on a tough run of form, claiming just two points finishes across the last eight grands prix and he has failed to reach the final session in the last four qualifying rounds.
The Italian has suffered various crashes this year, Monaco and Austria for example, but this does not worry Mercedes boss Toto Wolff who claims it is all part of the learning process.
“It’s clear when you pitch it in your second lap, you’re missing all of the driving in FP1 in Zandvoort, which is anyway a big balls track, that’s driving time that’s been taken away,” said Wolff, whose team is third in the championship and 323 points off first-placed McLaren.
“But I see him. I’m always trying to feel it and encourage him. I said, ‘you put it in the wall again, I’m fine with that’. That is part of the learning curve.
“I’m trying to not put any pressure on him. We’re not fighting for a constructor championship. Therefore there is space for him to develop and to learn.”
Antonelli is currently seventh in the drivers’ standings and has still had plenty of positives this year, such as his maiden sprint pole in Miami and first F1 podium in Canada.
Additional reporting by Stuart Codling and Ronald Vording
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