Antonelli beached early in FP2 at Monza — but the rookie’s still bullish for qualifying
Monza’s gravel bite doesn’t care for homecomings. Kimi Antonelli found that out the hard way on Friday, with the Italian rookie’s second practice ending in the stones at Lesmo 2 barely 10 minutes in. A brief red flag later, the Mercedes was craned out, the tifosi exhaled, and Antonelli was back in the garage planning how to turn an early mistake into a Saturday rebound.
“I’m beached… sorry about that,” came the matter-of-fact radio call as the W16B sank into the gravel. He’d completed just four laps when the rear stepped out on corner exit and the car drifted off-line into the old-school trap that punishes even small misreads of grip.
Antonelli didn’t sugarcoat it afterwards. “I pushed a bit too hard for the grip in the moment and, yeah, it was a shame,” he told F1TV. “Day was looking good, I had a good FP1, and the start of FP2 was looking strong. Confidence still high, just obviously tomorrow I will have to do a bit of a different program but will try to be ready for anything.”
The optimism isn’t misplaced. He was lively in FP1, clocking the fifth-quickest time over 25 laps and looking comfortable with the low-drag trim around Monza’s long straights and heavy braking zones. More tellingly, he said Mercedes were “moving in the right direction with the set-up” before the off curtailed his mileage.
And he knows what’s coming in qualifying: a knife-edge session with everyone stacked inside a blink. “Quali is going to be very tight,” he said, noting that ten cars sat within four tenths at one stage. That’s Monza — tradeoffs everywhere, the tow worth a couple of tenths if you nail it, a headache if you don’t. Expect traffic games, feints, and a few radio meltdowns as drivers haggle for a slipstream without tripping over each other into the chicanes.
If the home crowd adds pressure, Antonelli isn’t showing it. He called the atmosphere “amazing,” and while he’s not in red, he is the only Italian on the 2025 grid — every cheer on Saturday will feel personal.
On the other side of the Mercedes garage, George Russell sounded less convinced the car’s window was quite open yet. “It was a tricky day, to be honest,” he said. “It didn’t feel spectacular out there for us today. It’s obviously very close. I think on the leaderboard I was P10 but only three-tenths off. Usually three-tenths off would be just behind the McLarens.”
That’s the riddle for Mercedes heading into FP3: the baseline looks decent, the spread is minimal, but the last few tenths are stubborn. At Monza, they always are. Get the front axle biting into the Rettifilo and Roggia chicanes without paying a price in the Lesmos, and you’re in business. Miss the window by a whisker and you’re mired in the DRS train all Sunday.
Antonelli’s early stop means he’ll go into the final practice with a busier checklist — a couple of runs to validate the set-up direction, some tow rehearsals, maybe a late push lap to lock in the timing. It’s not ideal, but it’s recoverable. And for a rookie carrying a nation’s hopes into his first home Grand Prix weekend, the way he parked the error and moved on was quietly impressive.
One small excursion won’t define his first Monza. Qualifying will. And if the confidence he’s talking about matches the speed he showed in the morning, there’s still a chance the home crowd will be roaring something other than relief by late Saturday.
