{"id":2907,"date":"2026-09-26T12:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T15:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/?p=2907"},"modified":"2026-09-26T12:23:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T15:23:16","slug":"antonelli-calls-baku-his-worst-weekend-of-2026-despite-recovery-to-fifth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/antonelli-calls-baku-his-worst-weekend-of-2026-despite-recovery-to-fifth\/","title":{"rendered":"Antonelli calls Baku his \u201cworst weekend\u201d of 2026 despite recovery to fifth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Summary<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Antonelli described Baku as his worst weekend of the season.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>He recovered 11 places after crashing in qualifying.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Mercedes driver said contact at a Safety Car restart damaged his car\u2019s floor.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Kimi Antonelli called the Azerbaijan Grand Prix his \u201cworst weekend, by far, of the season\u201d<\/strong> despite recovering from 16th on the grid to finish fifth on Saturday. The championship leader said a qualifying crash had affected his confidence and that the race became an exercise in limiting the points lost to Mercedes teammate George Russell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Antonelli\u2019s weekend began with a technical problem that restricted his running in practice. He then hit the wall at Turn 1 during Q1, ending his qualifying session while Russell went on to take pole. Antonelli gained 11 places in the <a href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/russell-holds-off-verstappen-by-0-1s-to-win-azerbaijan-grand-prix\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\">Baku race<\/a>, but said he lacked the pace to climb higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI felt always a step behind,\u201d he said. \u201cToday was about damage limitation.\u201d Antonelli added that contact with Haas driver Oliver Bearman at a Safety Car restart caused <strong>significant damage to the floor<\/strong> of his Mercedes, making the rest of the race more difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Russell won ahead of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar, collecting 25 points to Antonelli\u2019s 10. <strong>Antonelli remains in front in the Drivers\u2019 Championship with 302 points, 66 ahead of Russell<\/strong>, after arriving in Baku with an 81-point advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Antonelli said the weekend had taught him lessons about both his driving and his approach. He will seek to recover his form at the next round, the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, scheduled for 2\u20134 October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">F1 today: FAQ<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">When is the next F1 race after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/when-is-the-next-f1-race-after-the-2026-azerbaijan-grand-prix-date-start-time-and-full-schedule\/\">Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia<\/a> takes place at Sepang on <strong>Sunday, 4 October 2026<\/strong>. The race starts at <strong>08:00 BST, 03:00 US Eastern time and 15:00 in Malaysia<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Who leads the 2026 F1 championship after Baku?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Kimi Antonelli leads with 302 points<\/strong>, 66 ahead of Mercedes teammate George Russell, who has 236. <a href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/mercedes-pulls-clear-as-russell-reduces-antonellis-f1-lead-in-baku\/\">Russell reduced the gap by 15 points<\/a> with his Azerbaijan GP victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What penalty will Franco Colapinto serve at the next F1 race?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Colapinto has a <strong>five-place grid penalty<\/strong> for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia after causing the <a href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/colapinto-handed-grid-penalty-after-causing-baku-crash-that-eliminated-norris-and-gasly\/\">Baku collision involving Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Where did Kimi Antonelli finish in the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Antonelli finished fifth after starting 16th, gaining 11 places in Baku.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kimi Antonelli climbed from 16th to fifth in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but admitted he never felt comfortable across the weekend. George Russell\u2019s victory reduced his championship lead from 81 to 66 points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1020316027,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"42wp_featured_image_caption":"Andrea Kimi Antonelli ","42wp_featured_image_credits":"F1","42wp_featured_video":"","42wp_featured_image_hidden":false,"42wp_authors_list":[{"id":7,"location":""}],"footnotes":"","42wp_breaking_news":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[517,324,314,16],"42wp_author":[7],"class_list":["post-2907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-f1","tag-azerbaijan-gp","tag-formula-1","tag-kimi-antonelli","tag-mercedes","42wp_author-victor-martins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2907"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2908,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2907\/revisions\/2908"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1020316027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2907"},{"taxonomy":"42wp_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/42wp_author?post=2907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}