Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has explained why Andrea Kimi Antonelli reported he had “no battery” at the end of his final flying lap in qualifying.
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Antonelli secured third on the grid for tomorrow’s race, around three tenths of a second behind team mate George Russell.
After taking the chequered flag, Antonelli told his race engineer Peter Bonnington: “Mate I had no battery, end of lap.”
Wolff said the issue came down to a small timing mistake in energy deployment. “I think he pushed the button maybe a tiny bit too late and it didn’t have the full deployment,” he told Sky. “But it was tiny.”
Bonnington had reminded Antonelli before his final lap to change the timing of his boost activation. “Just bring the boost presses a little bit earlier, especially turn 14, boost presses earlier,” he said over the radio.
Russell recovered from a difficult weekend in Monaco to take an important pole position as he looks to reduce Antonelli’s 68-point championship lead. Wolff explained that Russell and his engineers adjusted their setup approach this weekend after reassessing the car’s balance.
“I think what George did is that in Miami he wasn’t quick and Kimi was, like last year. Then George said, okay, what is he doing on the other side of the garage?
“They tuned the car mechanically and electronically more to what Kimi did, and that didn’t work for George. After Monaco he came back and said ‘I need to reset, I have to go back what I had at the beginning of the season’ and you see the result.”
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