Kimi Antonelli astonished by Max Verstappen: 'I was very annoyed with that'

Kimi Antonelli has stated he was impressed with how Max Verstappen handled the safety car restart, which saw him overtake for the lead.

However, the championship leader admitted he was “annoyed” that he let such a move happen.

Antonelli shot into the lead on the opening lap after making a strong getaway off the line, but found himself back behind Verstappen following a safety car restart.

At that stage, the front-runners had swapped to slick tyres and needed to take care when bringing them up to temperature.

But it was in this phase that Verstappen was able to get himself ahead of Antonelli for the lead.

“Today was a really good showcase of how Max handled the restart on slick tyres and the slippery track,” Antonelli told media including RacingNews365.

“He just knew much better how to position the car and had a better feeling for the grip in those first two corners and overtook me. 

“That was really good, even though it was not nice to get overtaken, I was very annoyed with that, it was still a good way to learn from that and to use it in the future.”

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Antonelli feels 'great' to share podium with Verstappen, Hamilton

Antonelli finished the race in second place and inched closer to championship success as he gained another 18 points over George Russell, who retired late on with a power unit issue.

The Italian was lodged between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton on the podium, two of the sport's most successful drivers.

Reacting to being on the podium with the duo, Antonelli said: “It’s always great to be able to share the track, in this case with Max and Lewis.

“Lewis basically did the history of the sport and Max is doing the same. On my side, I try to learn as much as possible whenever I drive closely to them. 

“With Lewis, I think we’ve seen many, many times, many years, that even when things go badly, he always keeps his head down and tries to do his best to achieve the best result possible.”