Kimi Antonelli hopeful of solution after painful Madring experience

Kimi Antonelli is hopeful of a solution to avoid a 'painful' repeat of his experience in practice ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix.

Antonelli will start the race from second on the grid at the Madring after being beaten to pole by McLaren's Lando Norris by 0.011s. Max Verstappen lines up third in his Red Bull, with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc fourth and fifth for Ferrari.

With overtaking expected to be at a premium at the circuit, teams and drivers will have to find alternative methods to make gains on track. Mercedes driver Antonelli feels tyre management will offer one route forward.

Assessing the challenge of the new track, Antonelli said: "I think Monaco is probably still a bit more intense, but this track also takes quite a bit of effort to try and put the lap together.

"And overtaking, yes, I think it's going to be very difficult. In practice, I spent two laps behind a Williams trying to painfully get past - just really difficult, especially because the deg is quite big and when you're behind you start sliding more. It just makes your life a bit tougher."

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Antonelli keen to put Norris under pressure

Should Antonelli find himself behind Norris at the start, he feels there may be a way he will be able to work his way past the F1 champion.

"The only thing you can do is try to put pressure on the car in front, try to make them make a mistake or make them deg a bit more, and then you try to play with strategy," he said. "But when you have a very similar pace, it is difficult to make a move."

The 20-year-old, who leads team-mate George Russell by 66 points going into the race, expects it to be decided by tyre life.

"The race is going to be a lot about managing the tyres and not deg-ing off so much as well," he said.

"We don't really know how the hard tyre is, how resilient it is, so we may have two stops, three stops. We'll see.

"But the key, especially in that first stint, will be to try and manage as much as you know without giving up too much time, trying to manage the tyres."