How Kimi Antonelli turned a troubled Mercedes into Monaco pole position

Kimi Antonelli became the first Mercedes driver since 2019 to claim pole position in Monaco, stealing the show on a weekend where all eyes were firmly fixed on the Ferrari drivers.

We uncover how Kimi extracted pole-sitting pace from a Mercedes that looked unsettled all weekend with the help of telemetry data.

Kimi Antonelli Monaco pole telemetry analysis

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If we had to single out one track where Mercedes is at its most vulnerable, it would definitely be Monaco. The ability to generate energy very easily almost anywhere on the circuit, combined with the fact that there are no long straights to adequately deploy it, act as a great equaliser between Mercedes and the rest of the field.

Monaco is a track where a driver’s ability to dance on the absolute limit plays the most crucial role, where even the smallest snap during a hot lap can decide the difference between P1 and P5.

Precisely because of this, all eyes during this race weekend were on Ferrari, a team that on Friday looked like the most serious contender for pole position. While they dominated the opening two free practice sessions on Friday, Mercedes, on the other hand, was deeply struggling.

The car’s balance was definitely off, with the front end causing the biggest headaches. The drivers failed to rotate the car effectively through the Principality’s twisty corners, which was clearly reflected in the lap times from Casino all the way down to Portier.

At the same time, the unstable front end gave Kimi and Russell major issues under braking, where they lost significant chunks of time to their rivals.

However, the situation on track turned around after the team made setup changes, which clearly suited Kimi Antonelli. Russell, on the other hand, continued to struggle and finished Saturday’s FP3 nearly 0.8 seconds adrift of his teammate, who sat in P1.

The Italian managed to adapt incredibly quickly and bring the W17 to life, while Russell, for some reason, could not mirror this and kept losing time in the exact same sections as the previous day.

With Verstappen also entering the mix in the meantime, the battle for pole position became incredibly tense.

In the end, Antonelli emerged victorious with a truly fantastic lap at the death of Q3, leaving two world champions in his wake. By analysing the telemetry data, we can see exactly in which corner Kimi secured the win, and just how close Max actually was.

Looking at the graph displaying the fastest qualifying laps of Antonelli, Verstappen, and Hamilton, it is clear that Max and Kimi were pretty much neck-and-neck in Sector 1, while the Briton lost far too much time here to remain in the hunt for pole later on.

The Red Bull driver gained a hundredth of a second right away in Turn 1, which is always highly demanding as locking the front tyres here is incredibly easy. Much like in FP3, Antonelli drove brilliantly through T3, where he braked later than the others, as well as through the rest of the Casino section.

However, on the entry to the tunnel, it was actually Verstappen who had pole position in his hands. That was until the braking zone for the Nouvelle Chicane.

This is exactly where Kimi snatched pole position. It is truly remarkable how he went from an obviously unstable front end under braking earlier in the weekend to a scenario where he makes the biggest difference at the heaviest braking point on the track. Kimi braked both later and managed to carry a higher minimum speed through the chicane. Truly incredible precision and car control.

In the next part of the track, the situation remained constant, leaving Turns 18 and 19 as the final opportunity to overturn the order. Max tried to swing the advantage back in his favour through Rascasse with late braking and an excellent exit, but in the end, he fell just 0.043 seconds short of succeeding.

A highly interesting data point is that Antonelli was actually not the fastest driver in any single sector in Monaco; Verstappen topped the timing sheets in the first and last sectors, while Hamilton was fastest in the middle.

However, the young Italian was right behind them in all three, and through a consistent, error-free lap, he managed to place himself in an excellent position for a fifth consecutive victory.

Whether he succeeds will most likely be decided at the race start itself. Antonelli has not exactly covered himself in glory off the line this season, and the row behind him features two Ferrari drivers who are incredibly fast off the line.

But if there is one place where it is easy to defend a position, it is certainly Monaco. To pull off an on-track overtake here, you need a pace advantage of up to 4 seconds. In other words, the drivers behind will likely have to find their only real opportunity in strategy or right at the start of the race.

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