Kimi Antonelli hails Baku recovery after unusual encouragement

Kimi Antonelli was buoyed by his strong recovery during FP2 at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, having missed a considerable amount of the early running in Baku.

A hydraulics failure almost halfway through FP1, in which he finished fifth-fastest, curtailed his efforts. And there was more inconvenience to come.

Antonelli was subsequently out late in the second hour of the day after Mercedes opted to complete a power unit change in his W17 as a precautionary measure.

Nonetheless, the young Italian had enough pace in hand to finish the final session of Thursday second quickest, behind team-mate George Russell, who topped the timing boards in FP1 too.

"Yeah, we tried to do the maths of what we had [left]," Antonelli said after the second free practice session of this lost time out on the Baku City Circuit.

"Obviously, I lost quite a few laps in FP1, and then missing half of FP2 is never ideal, especially on a street circuit.

"But overall, I feel like it was a good recovery. I feel quite good in the car. [But] a few things to work on, but looking forward to tomorrow."

Unexpected encouragement from Antonelli

The F1 drivers' championship leader pulled off at Turn 7 around 25 minutes into the opening hour of running, with smoke billowing from his car.

The marshals jumped into action, using a fire extinguisher to prevent the situation from escalating. Apart from appearing to accidentally get the foam in Antonelli's face, there was concern that it would provide his mechanics with a difficult clean-up job.

However, the 20-year-old said he was encouraging the marshals to use the extinguishers to prevent damage to the internals of his car.

"No, actually, I wanted them to spray a bit more because the car caught a bit on fire," Antonelli added.

"Luckily, it didn't do much damage. I was just encouraging them to go [for it]. But yeah, they did what they could."