Kimi Antonelli Looks to Bounce Back Following Miami His Sprint Race Struggles and Penalty

Wolff Says Antonelli's Not to Blame for Bad StartCHANDAN KHANNA - Getty Images

Kimi Antonelli entered the Miami Grand Prix weekend as the first teenager to lead the World Drivers' Championship in points. He holds on through the first sprint race, but loses two points to his Mercedes teammate George Russell.

Antonelli qualified second for the second Sprint race of the season behind reigning World Champion, McLaren's Lando Norris. The young Italian driver and his second season have struggled with starts through the first three Grand Prix and one sprint race. It looked like he did again in Miami's Saturday race.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff clarified to Sky Sports that Antonelli's poor start was a problem on the team's side, not the teenager's.

"We were hoping that we'd be able to hold on now in terms of fewer lap times we do. But obviously if you have such a bad getaway, which wasn't at all Kimi's fault, it was a glitch on our side - it's difficult."

"The start, to be fair, the procedure was all good," Antonelli said. "So we need to check what happened because the drop was good, and on my side, for once, I did everything right. So yeah, it was a shame to have a really bad start because it just comprised the race. To be fair, we're struggling a little bit this weekend, but the pace wasn't too bad at the end. Yeah, difficult out there. We'll focus on qualifying now."

The young driver made his mistake near the end of the race, exceeding track limits in turn 11 multiple times, and was hit with a five-second penalty. Antonelli was more than four seconds ahead of his teammate Russell when he crossed the line 4th and instead had to settle for a sixth-place finish and only three points compared to five. Potentially hearing the chatter on the radio that there was a five-second penalty incoming full-time champion max for staffing who had already battled past Lewis Hamilton for sixth position, kicked his final lap into overdrive, making up two tents on the entire field to close in on Russell. There's not enough time for a battle between Verstappen and Russell, but it placed him just inside the five-second window created by Antonelli's penalty, advancing Verstappen to a fifth-place finish, Verstappen's best finish of the season so far.

Mercedes was one of the few teams not to bring any major upgrades to the Miami weekend, instead planning to reveal upgrades at the Montreal Grand Prix towards the end of the month. This puts them on the back foot as McLaren and Ferrari pick up speed. The two constructors were rewarded with a and Charles Leclerc in third.