Kimi Antonelli forced to 'dig deep' after horrific Mercedes crash

Kimi Antonelli conceded to enduring a "very, very stressful day" which saw him astonishingly qualify on the front row of the grid for the Australian Grand Prix following a monster smash in final practice.

Antonelli destroyed his W17 after hitting a wall coming off the kerb at the second corner at Melbourne's Albert Park, leaving his mechanics with a mountain to climb to repair the car and get the young Italian back on track.

Remarkably, Antonelli appeared during a red-flag period just beyond the midway point of Q1 following a crash involving Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

In the end, Antonelli finished three-tenths of a second adrift of team-mate George Russell to secure a front-row lock-out for Mercedes at the start of F1's latest era following the major change in the regulations.

Assessing his day, Antonelli said: "It's been a very, very stressful day.

"Unfortunately, I went into the wall, but the guys were the heroes to put the car back on track.

"We couldn't even set up the car, we just went out, but I managed to put it on the front row, so I'm really happy with that."

Antonelli revealed that "it was not easy" to come through what happened, adding: "I had to dig deep.

"I need to have a clean weekend next time because I definitely compromised qualifying.

"But we have a race tomorrow to look ahead to, and a good result is possible."

Antonelli and Mercedes, however, face two investigations for incidents during qualifying, the first for a pit lane infringement in Q1, and the second for his car being released in an unsafe condition during Q3.