Kimi Antonelli set a report because the youngest grand slam winner in Components 1 historical past when he dominated the Monaco Grand Prix, and Crimson Bull boss Laurent Mekies admits that his “severe tempo” got here as a shock to many onlookers.
The Mercedes teenager put his Mercedes on pole place within the principality forward of the Crimson Bull of Max Verstappen. Nevertheless, the Dutchman spluttered off the road on Sunday with engine points and retired from the race. From then on, Antonelli confronted little problem up entrance and romped to his fifth consecutive victory.
“Kimi disappeared,” stated Mekies, when requested concerning the Mercedes driver’s efficiency. “Credit score to Kimi, I believe he stunned all of us by being that quick round right here on his second 12 months solely.
“I believe he confirmed at the moment that what he had accomplished yesterday [in qualifying] was not one magical lap however that he had a really severe tempo. Whether or not or not Max would have been in a position to problem that tempo, once more we’ll by no means know.”
Verstappen put up a powerful battle in Monaco on Saturday. Whereas Antonelli beat him to pole place by simply 0.043s across the avenue circuit, the four-time world champion had lapped faster than him within the first two qualifying periods.
The workforce “discovered the optimum” for Verstappen on Saturday, however was unable to switch that over to Sunday because the engine difficulty struck earlier than his race had actually begun.
Max Verstappen lined up in second behind Kimi Antonelli on Sunday
Picture by: Bryn Lennon / Components 1 by way of Getty Pictures
“Definitely, the extent at which Max has been operating in qualifying, not only one lap, Q2, the 2 makes an attempt of Q3 was very spectacular,” Mekies added. “We all know that each time you handle to get Max snug with the automobile you get that further Max impact so I might have preferred to see what he would have accomplished within the race.”
Verstappen acknowledged that it had been “a extremely good weekend up till the race”, however conceded that he had been “disillusioned to not be on the rostrum” come Sunday.
“We simply have to make it possible for in fact we end the races,” he stated. “However we first want to know what went fallacious at the moment.”
When it comes to what truly did go fallacious, Mekies stated the workforce has recognized what the problem was and admitted that it “gave him no probability” to compete for the rostrum.
“It’s an engine difficulty,” he defined. “Clearly, we will solely apologise to Max as a result of the job he had accomplished with the workforce to get to that degree of tempo round Monaco was excellent. Most likely early days to debate what the repair is, however we expect we’ve got recognized what the problem is.”
Further reporting by Ben Vinel.
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