Martin Brundle saw shades of Michael Schumacher in how Andrea Kimi Antonelli recovered from his FP3 crash during qualifying for the 2026 Australian Grand Prix.
Antonelli left Mercedes with a huge challenge to repair his car in time for the first qualifying session of the 2026 F1 season after crashing in the final 13 minutes of FP3 on Saturday. The Silver Arrows ultimately only managed to get the 19-year-old out with six minutes left in Q1.
Red Bull rival Max Verstappen crashing during Q1 at the Australian GP helped Mercedes get Antonelli’s car ready in time, as it brought out the red flags. Mercedes had to replace nearly the entire rear-end of Antonelli’s car after he destroyed his W17 in the final practice session.
Antonelli crashed in FP3 at the Australian GP after losing the rear-end of his car the moment that he dropped off the inside kerb at Turn 2 and touched the normal tarmac on the track. It put the Bologna boy into the wall, ruining his front and rear suspension, rear wing and floor.
well as reminding Brundle of seven-time champion Schumacher during qualifying for the Australian GP, Antonelli’s efforts even reminded 2009 champion Jenson Button of four-time champion Verstappen. Button feels he echoed Verstappen’s never-give-in grit at Albert Park.
Antonelli astounded Button as he ultimately finished the day by securing second on the grid with a 1:18.811 in Q3. His quickest time of the day was only beaten by Russell securing pole position for the Australian GP with a 1:18.518, amid a dominant start to 2026 by Mercedes.
Button said (06:40): “There’s a few on the grid like him. I would say he’s a little bit like Max Verstappen in that regard. You know, putting everything on the line every session.
“But we’ve also got to give him credit, because the car, I don’t know if they did a proper sit-down with the car when they put everything on. Normally, everything’s very close.
“But you want to make sure it’s perfect, and that can make small differences here and there, marginal gains. So, I think it was a very good lap from Kimi.”
Russell beat Antonelli by 0.293s for pole for the Australian GP as Mercedes started the 2026 F1 season by humbling their rivals. Isack Hadjar on his debut for Red Bull qualified third, yet his quickest Q3 lap time of 1:19.303 trailed the Briton’s by 0.785s and the Italian’s by 0.492s.