Mercedes face race against time after Antonelli’s massive FP3 crash in Melbourne

Michelle Foster
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Kimi Antonelli's crashed W17

Kimi Antonelli's crashed W17

Mercedes is in a race against time to rebuild Kimi Antonelli’s W17 after the Italian suffered a massive crash late in FP3.

Following his teammate George Russell out of the pit lane for a qualifying sim late in FP3, Antonelli binned it out of Turn 2, but was thankfully unhurt in the crash.

Kimi Antonelli FP3 crash leaves Mercedes scrambling

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Starting his flying lap, the Mercedes driver got on the kerb at Turn 2 and flew into the outside wall at Turn 3 before ricocheting across the track into the inside wall.

The initial impact was to the rear of his W17, the force flipping the car around so the front also struck the wall before it slid across the track for a second rear-end impact.

Antonelli climbed unaided from his car and returned to the Mercedes garage to review his data with his race engineer Peter Bonnington.

The car was recovered to the Mercedes garage after FP3 with the Brackley squad’s mechanics already gathering the parts needed to repair the car.

With qualifying just two hours after the conclusion of FP3, Mercedes is in a race against time.

Speaking about Antonelli’s crash, 2009 world champion Jenson Button compared the Italian’s lap to that of his teammate Russell’s.

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He told Sky F1: “This is such a difficult corner because you want to come into it fast. He’s got a qualifying practice run, but it’s so easy to overdrive this corner.

“The quickest way is what George Russell did, because he’s getting the car turned quickly. He’s got 1000 horsepower under his right foot, and he wants to get that to the ground as quick as he can.

“So he’s positioning it well, whereas Kimi’s coming out of Turn 1 into Turn 2, and he’s tightened up that Turn 2. So yeah, it’s difficult as a driver not to carry in all that speed.”

Antonelli spoke with his team principal Toto Wolff in the aftermath, Wolff asking him if he had “ridden that kerb the same way before”.

Antonelli replied: “I think a little bit more.”

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