{"id":510917,"date":"2026-07-05T13:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T13:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/510917\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T13:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T13:35:09","slug":"toto-wolff-reacts-after-kimi-antonelli-left-stressed-by-unusual-mercedes-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/510917\/","title":{"rendered":"Toto Wolff reacts after Kimi Antonelli left &#8216;stressed&#8217; by unusual Mercedes decision"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kimi Antonelli reflected on being left feeling &#8220;stressed&#8221; at the start of the final push laps during Q3 at Silverstone, but Toto Wolff lauded him for how he responded to the unexpected adversity.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The Mercedes driver claimed an emphatic pole position during qualifying at the British Grand Prix, despite being put in an awkward position by his team.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The 19-year-old topped the timing boards after the first runs in the last part of the grid-setting session and was less than impressed to find himself sent out first in the dying moments, meaning he would take the chequered flag first.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Unhappy at missing out on peak track evolution, the young Italian took to team radio to question the decision.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>However, he overcame his frustration to go even quicker, setting a time that was ultimately almost two-tenths of a second faster than Charles Leclerc in second.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Toto Wolff was quick to praise how the five-time grand prix winner put his dissatisfaction to the back of his mind.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He doesn&#8217;t show any weaknesses,&#8221; the Mercedes team principal said of Antonelli on Sky Sports F1. &#8220;He was a little bit on the back foot, no problem.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As any driver, you don&#8217;t like to be sent out first. He made that comment in the pit lane, and then he parked it; it&#8217;s compartmentalised; it doesn&#8217;t play any role in his ability to drive fast.&#8221;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>When asked about the unusual run plan in the post-qualifying press conference, Antonelli admitted he was left having to overcome his emotions during his out lap.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yeah, I&#8217;m not a fan of going first for the last run, but I was a little bit stressed on the out lap,&#8221; Antonelli told media, including RacingNews365.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But then just tried to focus on what I had to do, and luckily it worked out.&#8221;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kimi Antonelli reflected on being left feeling &#8220;stressed&#8221; at the start of the final push laps during Q3&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3518,3521,3519,3522,3520,3517,3515,3513,3516,3514,111,139,69,3512,213],"class_list":["post-510917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motorsport","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}