Kimi Antonelli concedes to mistake that nearly handed George Russell advantage

Kimi Antonelli has conceded to making a mistake that "threw me off" during a "messy" Sprint qualifying in Canada - that nearly handed George Russell a key advantage.

Antonelli ultimately qualified in second place for the Sprint in Montreal, ending up just 0.068s behind pole-sitter Russell in the sister W17, which has received multiple upgrades this weekend.

However, the championship leader, who enjoys a 20-point buffer at the top of the standings, admitted that his session was "messy" as he was languishing in only sixth as he completed his second SQ3 lap. 

Antonelli revealed that he had made a mistake earlier in qualfiying and then one at the start of SQ3, which nearly handed Russell a key advantage from pole if the Italian was stuck in the midfield.

"The lap was quite bad to be fair, the session was not clean at all, and I made a mistake in SQ2, and that threw me off a little bit," Antonelli reflected.

"Then I decided to go for one lap on the softs without doing prep, and the tyres were a bit cold, and it was just a messy session.

"But I am still P2, and very close, so the potential is definitely there, and we will do better [on Saturday]. 

"We brought the upgrade, and [it is giving us the three-tenths advantage] in terms of performance, but of course, we still need to understand a little bit more about the package.

"Because the balance has changed a little bit, but overall, it seems to have given us a little bit of an edge again."