By Ian Ransom
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – A wet and windy Albert Park offered a daunting test for the six drivers starting a Formula One season for the first time at the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday but Mercedes’ teen talent Kimi Antonelli passed his exam with flying colours.
The 18-year-old Italian’s fourth place finish in the race won by Lando Norris made him the youngest F1 debutant to score points and the second youngest ever after Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Four out of the six rookies failed to finish but after qualifying 16th, Antonelli worked his way through the chaos of three safety cars and found himself gunning for a podium spot.
While a five-second penalty for an infringement in the pits initially put him back to fifth, stewards later reversed that decision.
That lifted spirits at Mercedes even higher after Antonelli’s teammate George Russell finished third.
Antonelli produced the goods in the rain and wind after an error-strewn qualifying in scorching heat on Saturday.
“The team did a great job, they guided me through. After I had the mistakes, I kind of hurt my confidence a little bit,” he said.
“The team did great to calm me down and get me back into the rhythm. Also they made all the right calls.”
The Italian stepped into the huge shoes vacated by Lewis Hamilton, who won six of his seven world championships with Mercedes before switching to Ferrari.
Antonelli ended up six places ahead of the Briton, who had an underwhelming debut for the Italian glamour team and finished 10th.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was impressed with the way Antonelli had picked off the drivers ahead of him after starting near the back of the grid.
“Even very good drivers spun or hit the wall and its easier to not finish than to finish and he kept his cool, and was just very impressive to see,” he said. “It shows that he has a good future as long as the trajectory keeps being like it is.”
Mercedes head to China second in the constructors’ standings, two points behind McLaren.
Russell has had to step up in Hamilton’s absence, and Wolff praised the Briton for leading from the front.
“There is so much talk about Kimi, and he merits that, but George is just so good,” said Wolff.
“He extracts from the car more than the car has at times, he makes no mistakes, he’s calm now, he’s a true leader in the team and we’re lucky to have him.”
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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