Kimi Antonelli: It's frustrating to finish fifth

      Mercedes had a chance to guarantee second place in the Constructors' Championship after the race in Qatar, but the points earned from Kimi Antonelli's fifth place and George Russell's sixth were not enough.

      Kimi could have finished fourth, but he made a mistake at the end and let Lando Norris through. George complained that overtaking at the Losail circuit is impossible, so he was forced to spend the whole race behind rivals.

      Kimi Antonelli (5th): "It's pretty frustrating to finish fifth in a situation where the podium was so close. It's a shame I had to wait in the pit stop to avoid an unsafe release, because that completely changed my race and I lost a lot of time behind Carlos Sainz.

      It's very difficult to follow another car closely on this track because the tyres start to overheat a lot. I pushed as hard as I could to close the gap, but when I was almost in DRS range behind Carlos, I entered turn nine faster than I should have and unexpectedly lost the rear of the car and ran off the track.

      We need to study everything to understand why the mistake happened and what I could have done differently. Yes, I did enter that corner faster, but not by much, and the rear of the car immediately came out of my control. It's a shame to lose the position and two points, but now I need to focus on Abu Dhabi and keep working hard."

      George Russell (6th): "It's simply impossible to overtake on this track. I was stuck behind Fernando Alonso and Isack Hadjar for the whole race. But I don't think I was much faster than them, because I couldn't stay in their DRS zone.

      When Hadjar got a puncture, on the last three laps I was a second quicker. At that moment I was the fastest on track, which was just incredible.

      It was all decided at the start and on lap seven. I tried, but there was nothing I could do. Today was one of those days."