Antonelli: I want the season to start as soon as possible

      Kimi Antonelli has reasons to be positive about his performance in pre-season tests, for example, in this morning's session he showed a decent second time, losing to Charles Leclerc, a Ferrari driver, by only 0.077 seconds. According to the 18-year-old Mercedes debutant, he can't wait for the Australian Grand Prix, his first Formula 1 race.

      "Everything was wonderful! – this is how Antonelli described the impressions of a day and a half spent driving the W16 on the Bahrain highway. – It was great to participate in the official tests again, and it looks like our car is working well. Of course, there's still a lot of work ahead, we need to better understand her behavior and deal with the tires, but I think we've done a good job overall.

      I drove the full race distance last night and everything went great, including pit stops and other things. I think the results of the tests can be assessed positively, and although we have a lot to work on, it's a good start, and I can't wait for Melbourne.

      There's a really special moment waiting for me there - I still can hardly believe that the next time we return to the track is in Australia. Of course, I'm looking forward to this and will spend a few days at the team's base preparing for the first stage of the season and other upcoming races, as the stages in Melbourne and China will be held back-to-back with a week's interval. But I really want the season to start as soon as possible, and then we'll see what we can do."