Lewis Hamilton gave a heartwarming message of congratulations to Kimi Antonelli after the Mercedes teenager became the youngest pole-sitter in F1 history at the Chinese Grand Prix.
Italian driver Antonelli, 19, took advantage of George Russell’s mechanical issues in qualifying to pip his teammate to pole position in Shanghai by two-tenths of a second.
Hamilton set an impressive lap to finish third, ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc, and spoke glowingly about Antonelli – who replaced him at Mercedes last year – after his first grand prix pole. Antonelli beat Sebastian Vettel’s record for the youngest-ever pole-sitter, set at Monza in 2008 at the age of 21.
‘I have to say a big congratulations to this big lad here, to Kimi,” Hamilton said, at the post-qualifying press conference.
“It’s an amazing achievement. He took my seat and he hit it hard from the get-go! It’s really great to see him progressing – he really deserves it.”
Upbeat after a positive top-three finish in the sprint earlier in the day, Hamilton will be eyeing his first podium finish for Ferrari in a grand prix on Sunday, at a track where he has tasted victory six times in the past.
“It was a really tough qualifying, a bit harder with the wind, so gusty today,” he added.
“These guys [Mercedes duo] put in some great laps but I’m really happy to be up here. They’ve been rapid so far this season.
Wee did some great work over the break [after sprint race] and we managed to get a little bit closer to these guys, that’s a real positive.”
On the race on Sunday, in which Ferrari seems to have a clear advantage with their rapid launches off the start line, Hamilton said: “It’s still going to be a challenge, I’m sure we’ll have some fun, I’m looking forward to it.
“Our goal is try and break the gap between these two.”
Championship leader Russell, meanwhile, acknowledged it was “damage limitation” after an electrical issue looked set to confine him to the garage in the final phase of qualifying.
“It’s definitely damage limitation,” he said. “In Q2, the front wing broke, I went out in Q3 and the car wasn’t restarting so I’m really happy to be standing here.
“At the start of the last lap, I had no tyre temperature, no battery, so it could have been much worse.”
On the race, the Briton added: “We need to take care of the guys in red as well. Lewis is going to be pretty dicey at the beginning of the race – hope to put on a good race to the fans.”
Russell leads the championship by 11 points after his sprint race earlier on Saturday. The race on Sunday is at 7am GMT.
