From Q1 disaster to Las Vegas podium: Kimi Antonelli data tells all

Unpredictable Las Vegas produced several impressive strategies despite being effectively a one-stop race – and among them, one stands out above the rest: Kimi Antonelli’s remarkable drive, in which he spent almost the entire Grand Prix on a single set of tyres.

With that approach, he climbed from P17 to the podium, ending the race ahead of both a later-disqualified Oscar Piastri, and Charles Leclerc. Telemetry data helps explain how he managed it.

Kimi Antonelli: Las Vegas tyre whisperer

During the dramatic wet-weather qualifying session, where every driver struggled for grip, the young Mercedes driver could do no better than P17. A disappointing result, considering Antonelli has been in excellent form over the past few races, and that Mercedes came to Las Vegas as a potential dark horse.

Their well-known weakness – struggling to bring the tyres into the optimal temperature window – becomes a strength on cold circuits like this one. And last year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix already demonstrated that.

However, starting from P17, unless your name is Max Verstappen and you are racing in Brazil, you realistically have very little chance of scoring a strong result. Yet this time, the young Italian managed exactly that.

And much of the credit goes to his team for choosing a superb strategy. Antonelli was the only driver to start the race on soft tyres, with the aim of gaining as many positions as possible at the start and then using an early pit stop to undercut the slower cars ahead.

Both elements of that plan worked perfectly – Kimi gained two positions on the opening lap and then, taking advantage of the Virtual Safety Car on lap two, pitted for a new set of hard tyres.

With clean air ahead, Antonelli managed to sustain a genuinely impressive pace while keeping tyre wear to a minimum. Apart from a roughly 10-lap period spent behind Hamilton, the Mercedes rookie spent almost the entire race in clear air, which helped him enormously.

Combined with the Mercedes’ natural tendency to be gentle on its tyres, the formula for extreme tyre longevity was there. Whether the team originally planned a one-stop or two-stop strategy is unknown – but giving the young driver full confidence to attempt a one-stop was undoubtedly the right call.

His consistency becomes obvious when looking at the lap-time graph below.

Meanwhile, Piastri and Leclerc had put themselves firmly into the fight for P4 after nailing their pit stops – both successfully undercutting Sainz, with the McLaren driver gaining two positions in the process.

By lap 26, Leclerc was just over eight seconds behind Antonelli, with Piastri six seconds back. With tyres that were more than 20 laps fresher, the gap appeared relatively easy to close – especially given the machinery they were driving.

It took Piastri five laps on his new tyres before he began reducing the gap. Over the next ten laps, during his chase, he was around 0.4 seconds per lap faster than Antonelli, with Leclerc a tenth faster compared to him.

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By lap 36, both had caught Antonelli – yet, to everyone’s surprise, the Italian’s tyres seemed fresher than those of Piastri and Leclerc. At that moment he actually increased his pace, delivering a brilliant sequence of laps.

After spending several laps behind him without a single real overtaking opportunity, both drivers began to fade, while Antonelli once again pulled away. It was as if neither Piastri nor Leclerc had managed to preserve their tyres adequately – and had simply abandoned the attack.

The final laps turned into a time trial between Antonelli and Leclerc, with the Italian ultimately winning the battle by extending the gap beyond five seconds – enough to remain ahead even after receiving a time penalty.

A truly outstanding drive from the rookie, showing exceptional tyre management on a track he had never raced on before.

As if that were not enough, the outcome was further boosted by McLaren’s double disqualification due to excessive plank wear, promoting the Mercedes driver from P5 to P3 – giving him yet another podium in his rookie season.

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