Kimi Antonelli turned nerves into P6 start as ‘Monza curse’ loomed

Andrea Kimi Antonelli may have had nerves ahead of qualifying for the 2025 Italian Grand Prix, but that didn’t stop him from placing sixth on the grid for tomorrow’s race at Monza. 

The 19-year-old qualified seventh but will be promoted to sixth when Lewis Hamilton’s five-place grid penalty is applied. This has, according to the driver, broken his ‘Monza curse’, which began when he crashed at the dangerous Parabolica corner during FP1 last year on his debut with Mercedes. 

This year, the driver had another difficult practice session when he beached his W16 and brought out the red flags. Speaking about his mindset going into the weekend, the young rookie didn’t hold back the truth.

“I’m not going to lie, I felt very tense going into qualifying,” Antonelli explained. “I was very nervous because with the off of yesterday in FP2, I lost momentum because actually FP1 was strong and I felt like I had a good momentum and then in FP2 I went off super early, so I kind of lost everything and I felt like starting from zero in FP3.

“It was not easy, but I’m happy with how I built the run throughout the session.”

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

But Saturday saw the driver bounce back with an impressive run behind team-mate George Russell. 

“Yeah, much happier,” Antonelli said when asked about his recovery. “Finally, clean qualifying after a difficult period on that side, so quite happy. Just a shame for the last lap.

“We tried something a little bit different with the tyre temperature and I struggled a lot in the first part of the lap. I had a lot of moments, especially with the rear.

“The last part of the lap was very strong, so it was a shame. I lost quite a lot, especially in the first two chicanes. So, yeah, hopefully the race pace is going to be good tomorrow and we can put on a fight.”

Mercedes technical director James Allison has since said that the 2024 crash may have left Antonelli “approaching race weekends with a degree of caution”. While this year started in a similar fashion, there is noticeable improvement after 15 races of experience. 

“Well, definitely I knew much better what to expect after Imola, so I felt much more at ease with everything,” the Mercedes driver continued. “I’ve been really trying to embrace the cheer from the crowd, which has been amazing, so I’m really looking forward to the race tomorrow.”

Does he feel like he broke the curse of Monza? “Yeah, definitely. Finally, the last sector was almost powerful in the laps, so I’m really happy with that and definitely I overcame what happened in Parabolica last year.”

Photos from Italian GP – Practice & Qualifying