Andrea Kimi Antonelli admitted he was pleased to avoid a penalty for exceeding track limits after claiming pole position for the United States Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver has collected several penalties this year for exceeding track limits. Seven drivers lost lap times for running off-track in qualifying including both Red Bull drivers and McLaren’s Lando Norris on their final runs in Q3.Antonelli, who claimed his first pole position since the Belgian Grand Prix in July, said he was relieved to avoid the same mistake.
“It was surprising [to take pole], but also one of the biggest achievements for me today is that I didn’t [exceed] track limits,” he said. “That also made our life a little bit easier.
“I didn’t put myself in a difficult situation and we were able to just progress throughout the session and build from there. But definitely [pole] was unexpected. We knew we’d be close, but it was a good surprise.”
While other tracks have added small gravel traps to deter track limits breaches in recent years, the Circuit of the Americas has not. Lines were repainted at some corners after Friday’s running in a bid to reduce the number of breaches, but the generous asphalt run-offs mean they are still common.
Antonelli said the windy conditions in qualifying made it especially difficult.
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“It was not an easy session,” he said. “The wind was picking up and was being quite gusty, and Q3 was a little bit tricky because the wind was a bit unpredictable. It picked up as well, especially on that last lap it felt a bit worse.”
Following a difficult debut for Mercedes’ recent upgrade package in Sepang two rounds earlier, Antonelli said he was pleased with their result this weekend.
“I’m happy because we’ve been working really hard on this package and we’re still trying to understand it fully. But since Singapore, we’ve taken a big step further, and now we’ve just got to keep working on it, keep understanding it.
“But it’s a good result for the team because they’ve done a tremendous job on bringing this package, and finally we’re seeing the results.”