Kimi Antonelli sets fresh goal after F1 'momentum shift'

Kimi Antonelli has outlined his desire to consistently produce performances akin to his display Baku in the closing stages of the F1 season.

The Mercedes rookie enjoyed a strong start to his F1 campaign with consistent point-scoring results early in the year, however during the European leg, he ran into trouble.

Antonelli often failed to breach the top 10 in qualifying and the race as he struggled with confidence behind the wheel of the Mercedes car.

Following a particularly difficult home race in Italy, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff labelled his performance as “underwhelming”.

Antonelli bounced back with a strong drive to fourth place last time out in Baku, as he voiced his hope of maintaining the positive trajectory across the final seven rounds.

“Definitely, Baku was what I needed in terms of a result,” Antonelli told media including RacingNews365.

“It kind of switched the momentum and also switched the trend. Obviously, I had a negative trend up until then and I really needed a good result.

“Now the goal is to do these results consistently and try to perform even better. But definitely, Baku was really good.”

Antonelli revealed he was upset with his performance in Azerbaijan as he hoped to get onto the podium, finishing just over two seconds down on third place.

“I was really annoyed after the race because I really wanted a podium and I was just so close for the whole race,” Antoneli added.

“But overall, after a couple of days, I looked back at the whole weekend, and I think it was very positive.

“In terms of approach and preparation, it was a good standard. So I'll try to follow that for this weekend and the next few races.”