The stats behind Kimi Antonelli’s remarkable Chinese GP feat | F1 | Sport

Teenager Kimi Antonelli delighted boss Toto Wolff and left Lewis Hamilton awestruck with a record-smashing run to pole on Saturday. Aged 19 years and 202 days, he became the youngest Formula 1 driver to ever qualify quickest for a world championship Grand Prix – by miles.

He shaved nearly 18 months off the previous record, set by Sebastian Vettel when he was 21 years and 73 days old at the 2008 Italian GP. Antonelli was born on the same day that eventual four-time world champion Vettel made his first F1 weekend appearance, driving in practice for BMW Sauber at the 2006 Turkish GP.

“It’s going to take a while for someone to ever get ⁠close to that one,” said Hamilton, more than twice Antonelli’s age, of the young man to whom Mercedes trusted his old seat. Hamilton added, while sat next to the teenager: “He took my seat and he hit it hard from the get-go, so it’s really ⁠great to see him progressing and he really deserves it.”

Mercedes chief Wolff seemed to have a lump in his throat as he expressed his pride at seeing his young driver prove wrong those who have doubted whether he is ready to drive for F1’s front-running team.

The Austrian beamed: “Many said the kid was too young to be in a Mercedes, that we should have prepared him otherwise. The kid did good today – youngest pole-sitter. I’m so happy for Kimi to be on pole.”

Antonelli was undoubtedly helped by an electrical issue for George Russell which left him with time only for one lap, which was a little over two tenths down on his team-mate’s final effort. But it was enough to join Antonelli, who will today be the first Italian to start a Grand Prix on pole since Giancarlo Fisichella at the 2009 Belgian GP, on the front row.

Ferrari‘s gap to the Silver Arrows was around half what it was in qualifying for the Australian GP just a week earlier. Though Hamilton doesn’t think his team has yet made any significant inroads into Mercedes’ one-lap pace advantage.

He said: “I was at Mercedes for a long, long time, so I know how it works there. And in qualifying, they have another mode that they’re able to go to, a bit like party mode back in the day. Once they get to Q2 they switch that on. We don’t have that, whatever that is.”