MILAN (AP) \u2014 No longer a teenager, Kimi Antonelli is keen to show just how much he has progressed as he prepares for his home grand prix, even though he has to start at the back of the grid.<\/p>\n
It was two years ago at Monza that Antonelli was given his Formula 1 debut but that lasted just 10 minutes as the youngster was involved in a high-speed crash in the first practice session for the Italian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
Now Antonelli, who turned 20 last week, arrives as championship leader.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat definitely was not the way I wanted to introduce myself into the sport,\u201d Antonelli said. \u201cIf someone, while I was walking off in the gravel, would have said, \u2018in two years you\u2019re going to be leading the world championship in this exact moment,\u2019 I would have said \u2018shut up \u2026 don\u2019t joke with me.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, you know, it\u2019s happening. And, you know, I\u2019m very, very, very happy, very grateful. And just got to keep pushing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Antonelli, who is bidding to become F1\u2019s youngest-ever champion, is the first Italian to lead the standings going into his home race since Alberto Ascari in 1953.<\/p>\n
No Italian has won at Monza since 1966<\/p>\n
However, his chances of becoming the first Italian driver to win at Monza in 60 years have been hampered by taking a hefty grid penalty after Mercedes opted to swap his car\u2019s power unit to head off potential reliability problems in the second half of the season.<\/p>\n
Monza is a high speed track where Mercedes\u2019 engine is likely to be strong, and overtaking is relatively easy, giving Antonelli a chance to make up places, thrilling the fans as he slices through the field.<\/p>\n
Antonelli admits his chances of winning are slim, but that removes the pressure from his young shoulders.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d very much rather fight for pole and start at the front,\u201d he said. \u201cBut in some ways, I feel like it makes me a bit more relaxed going into the weekend. And I think also that\u2019s why I\u2019m going to be able to enjoy more the driving and the weekend itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, the goal is always the same, and we\u2019re going to try to maximize the result \u2026 but definitely I feel very free mentally going into this weekend. I\u2019m actually very excited, very much looking forward to it, but with no real pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ferrari tribute to Schumacher<\/p>\n
Antonelli leads teammate George Russell and Ferrari\u2019s Lewis Hamilton by 59 points, with defending champion Lando Norris 24 points further back.<\/p>\n
The race is always special for Ferrari, with the circuit packed with passionate, red-clad tifosi. And they had something to celebrate right from the off as both cars topped the first practice session on Friday.<\/p>\n
Charles Leclerc was fastest, 0.173 seconds ahead of Hamilton, with Russell third and Liam Lawson \u2014 who is again stepping in for the injured Isack Hadjar at Red Bull \u2014 fourth. Antonelli, with his new engine, was fifth-fastest.<\/p>\n
Ferrari is also commemorating the 30th anniversary of Michael Schumacher\u2019s first Italian Grand Prix victory with the team and has a special livery on the cars. Hamilton and teammate Charles Leclerc will also wear race suits featuring the seven stars Schumacher used to carry on his helmet design to signify his seven world titles.<\/p>\n
Resurgent McLaren<\/p>\n
Ferrari has upgraded its engine to boost its chances of a second win at Monza in three years but that is not troubling Norris, who is bidding to make it a hat trick of victories to turbocharge his title defense after back-to-back wins in Hungary and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not worried at all,\u201d the McLaren driver said. \u201cI mean they\u2019ve been very competitive, it probably will make them more competitive. Good on them, they\u2019ll make our life a bit trickier.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a worry, we just have to keep focused on our own job. We know it\u2019s a different track \u2026 we\u2019ve won two races but it\u2019s not like we\u2019ve been competitive the whole season and we know that there are things we still need to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
\n See AP\u2019s full auto racing coverage here\n <\/p>\n
Daniella Matar, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN (AP) \u2014 No longer a teenager, Kimi Antonelli is keen to show just how much he has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":883038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-883037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=883037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}