Mercedes
Antonelli had a decent start to run sixth early on, with Mercedes rolling the dice on strategy and seeing if they could make a one-stop work for him. That shook out with the youngster in second, and matching Piastri behind for pace. But he was brought in for a second stop, the team checking the data and not believing his tyres would last. With fresher rubber than those around him, Antonelli did not need to pit under the late VSC and thus picked up some places to finish a decent third and extend his Championship advantage.
As for Russell, his race could not have started worse. Anti-stall off the grid dropped him to P18, and he did well to recover back to the points. That limited his losses in the standings somewhat, but he still finds himself 59 points behind his team mate heading into the summer break.
Kimi Antonelli, 3rd
“It was not an easy race today. It was very difficult to overtake, even when we had significantly more pace than the cars ahead. We knew it might be like that today and so it proved. We did well to build a decent tyre offset to those ahead though throughout the race and that enabled us to get up into the podium positions.
“I initially wanted to target a one-stop race. It seemed like it might be possible in the opening stint but then we started to suffer with the rears. We made the call to go onto the two-stop and in the final stint, had really good pace. The Virtual Safety Car made our lives a little more difficult with Lewis (Hamilton) getting fresh tyres and being right behind us, but we were able to bring home P3.
“We have had a much better first half of the season than we perhaps expected at the very start. This is where we are at now though and we need to keep going, keep pushing on and doing the best job we can. It is going to be an intense second half of the year, but we are ready for it.”
George Russell, 7th
“That was another tough race. We lost lots of positions off the line and that ruined our chances of fighting for the podium. We’re not sure exactly what happened just yet. We did all the procedures as we normally do but it didn’t behave as we expected. The anti-stall then kicked in, and we dropped to the back of the field. The positive is that our pace across the rest of the race was strong and we were able to fight back to P7. That is not where we want to be finishing but is still points.
“It has not been a smooth first half of the season. I am looking forward to this break so we can reset and come back stronger after the summer shutdown. It has been a bit of a rollercoaster on my side so far and I am hoping the second half of the year can be much better.”
Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“Both drivers put in strong races today. Kimi did well to get onto the podium and P3 and George did brilliantly to fight back after the opening lap. His problem at the start was fully on us as a team and it isn’t good enough. He has suffered too many of these problems; we are doing everything we can to get on top of them, but it is unfortunately another issue that has cost him again today.
“We nearly got very unlucky with yet another ill-timed Virtual Safety Car, but Kimi defended well to hold off Lewis (Hamilton). It was good damage limitation after a difficult day yesterday.
“We go into the summer shutdown with a points gap in both championships that we would have taken at the start of the season. That is good but we know we need to keep pushing after the break, keep developing and improve our reliability. That will be the key if we are to not only fight for both championships but win them.”
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
“Today was the first race of the season where we were starting further back with both cars and therefore was about damage limitation. Kimi delivered a very measured race, and we used the flexibility of the two-stop strategy well. By managing the first two stints carefully, we were able to build a significant tyre life advantage over the cars ahead, and that gave him the pace he needed to move into podium contention in the final part of the race. The Virtual Safety Car was not ideal as it reduced that advantage and brought Lewis onto our gearbox, but Kimi managed the situation well and defended strongly to secure P3.
“On George’s side, we are obviously disappointed by the issue at the start. The anti-stall activation dropped him to the back of the field and made what was always going to be a challenging race even more difficult. We need to understand exactly why that happened, but once he recovered from the opening lap, his pace was very competitive, and he fought back through the field to salvage important points.
“We head into the summer break leading both championships, which is a good position to be in, but we know there are areas where we need to improve. Reliability remains a key focus, and we will use the shutdown to analyse the first half of the season and ensure we return after the break ready for a very competitive run to the end of the year.”
