Andrea Kimi Antonelli is hoping Mercedes’ decision to revert to an earlier suspension specification will help him regain his confidence in qualifying.

The rookie was eliminated in the first round of qualifying in both sessions at last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix. As a result he failed to score points for the sixth time in the last seven rounds.

However amid concerns at Mercedes that a recent upgrade has not worked as intended, the team will use an older suspension configuration at the Hungaroring.

“We’re going back to the old suspension, so hopefully it will bring the good feeling back,” said Antonelli. “The goal is to really deliver a good qualifying and try to drive at my best.”

Antonelli qualified third for the Miami Grand Prix but could only manage 13th on the grid at Imola, when the team introduced its new suspension. He qualified 15th in Monaco after crashing in qualifying, though he has managed some better performances since then, including fourth on the grid at the Canadian Grand Prix, where the team enjoyed its strongest qualifying performance of the season.

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However Antonelli’s team mate George Russell said the suspension change was likely not the only explanation for the problems they have experienced in recent rounds.

“Clearly our performance as a team has gone backwards in the last six or seven races and we’re trying to unpick why that may have been,” he said. “I think there’s a number of factors at play.

“Obviously we struggle a bit in the hotter conditions. Spa wasn’t hot, but generally we struggle in the hotter conditions. We’re now in summer, the start of the season was spring.

“And we brought some little things with updates and we think that may not have been performing as we hoped. So we’ll revert back from some small items.

“I think potentially we just lost our way slightly and we’re just going to go back to basics, focus on the main parts of the car and see where that takes us.”

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