Kimi Antonelli delivers damning Mercedes verdict after latest F1 upgrade evaluation

Kimi Antonelli has delivered an insight into the struggles he was having with the Mercedes package in Singapore amid a challenging sprint qualifying session.

The championship leader could only muster seventh place on Friday, a lacklustre result for the Italian who is closing in on a maiden title.

Antonelli is running the upgraded package that was introduced last weekend in Malaysia, while team-mate George Russell is running the previous specification at a weekend in which he will take a grid penalty for the grand prix.

But it was Russell who was faster on Friday as he qualified on the front row, while Antonelli had to make do with a position further down the order.

“Already in FP1, I was struggling,” Antonelli said. “There's still a lot to understand about this package. 

“The car is very difficult, very unpredictable, and it's very difficult to put a lap together. 

“It's a shame, because I was coming with high hopes, but so far it's been very difficult.”

Antonelli hopeful for overnight improvements

With no more practice scheduled this weekend due to the sprint format, Antonelli is expecting a challenging sprint race with his unchanged set-up.

However, with parc fermé conditions then opening up after the race, the 20-year-old is hopeful it will bring an opportunity to put the car in the better window.

“It's going to be a difficult weekend unless we can pull something out tomorrow,” Antonelli added.

“But other than that, it's going to be very tricky. I don't really see where we can find seven-tenths.

“Maybe tonight with Bono, the engineers, we're not going find something in the car, and for sure I'm going try to improve the driving a little bit.

“We'll see where we end up.”