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Antonelli Lost Confidence After Significant Car Damage

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Formula 1 championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli was unable to contend for the top spots during Friday's Sprint Qualifying session.

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The Italian driver revealed he sustained significant damage to his car after running wide into the gravel early in the Sprint Qualifying at Zandvoort.

On one of his initial laps on Friday afternoon, the championship leader lost control of his car in the penultimate corner.

Despite the incident, Antonelli managed to recover and advance to the next phase of Sprint Qualifying, albeit with substantial damage to his car.

"I had a few holes in the floor," Antonelli stated after the session. "When I returned to the pits, they initially told me the downforce loss was 25 points."
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"They tried to fix as much as possible, but the damage definitely remained. I struggled significantly in the low-speed corners, but it is what it is."
"I went into the last corner a bit too fast on that first lap, lost the rear, and went through the gravel. That was it," he added.

Antonelli managed to qualify for the final phase with the ten fastest drivers but was not a serious contender for pole position.

His teammate George Russell set the fastest lap, while Antonelli had to settle for fifth place, two-tenths off the best time.

The Italian admitted that the damaged car affected his confidence behind the wheel: "After that, of course, it wasn't easy to regain confidence. Still, I'm relatively close, and we'll have another go tomorrow."
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