Antonelli fires warning to Russell after ‘grandmother’ Baku drive

Kimi Antonelli has fired a warning shot at George Russell, telling his teammate he will re-establish order at the Bahrain Grand Prix after driving like his “grandmother” in Baku.

Russell clawed back points against his teammate at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, winning the 51-lap race while Antonelli could only recover to fifth place after his qualifying crash.

Kimi Antonelli warns George Russell after Baku setback

While Russell dominated Friday’s qualifying in Baku where he claimed pole position by nine-tenths ahead of Charles Leclerc, Antonelli crashed at Turn 1 in the first part of qualifying.

“Very unnecessary mistake. I misjudged the grip and hit the wall,” he admitted, adding that it was “very stupid”.

The Italian lined up 16th on the grid and it wasn’t until Lap 17 that he was finally running inside the points-paying positions. Two restarts after back-to-back Safety Car periods handed Antonelli the opportunity to make gains, and he was up to fifth with his final overtake on Lewis Hamilton.

It was slow progression from the driver who raced from 19th on the grid to first just three weeks earlier at the Italian Grand Prix.

“I was driving a bit like my grandmother, just damage-save mode,” Antonelli told PlanetF1.com and other media in Baku.

“I didn’t take any risks. Before making a move, I made sure that I could go for it.

“All in all, it’s one of those days where you have to be happy with P5.

“If I’d had the same pace as at Monza, or in previous races, it would have been different. It would have been just full attack.

“But I realised very early that, first of all, it was a lot harder to overtake with a train of cars all in overtake mode, and then I didn’t have the same pace as I’d had previously, so the mindset changed very quickly.

“And also, seeing so many people making mistakes, I pulled back a little because I just wanted to take advantage of everyone else’s mistake and just move forward.”

Kimi Antonelli vs George Russell: Mercedes F1 2026 scores

F1 2026: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between teammates

F1 2026: Head-to-head race statistics between teammates

Finishing fifth, Antonelli negated some of the damage in the standings as he scored 10 points while Russell claimed the maximum of 25 for the race win.

That Italian’s lead in the Drivers’ Championship was reduced to 66 points. That, though, is still a healthy margin for Antonelli given Baku was the first time in six race weekends that Russell had outscored him.

Antonelli intends to set that right at this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.

“He’s always been my rival,” Antonelli insisted of his Mercedes teammate.

“But I’ll make sure I re-establish the order and just make sure that I will be at the back at my usual level.

“This weekend was more, as I said, I was driving more like my grandma, so just it wasn’t the usual Kimi.

“But luckily, we have another race coming up, and really looking forward to it.”

Antonelli is seeking to become Italy’s first F1 world champion since Alberto Ascari in 1953.

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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