Antonelli proud of Mercedes' damage limitation effort after salvaging third

World championship leader Kimi Antonelli said he was proud of his and Mercedes' damage limitation efforts on Sunday after he finished third to extend his advantage in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The 19-year-old Italian battled for a podium finish having been hit with a grid penalty to seventh place after a yellow flag infringement in qualifying.

"I think it's a good result," he said. "It was damage limitation after yesterday, and we really had to fight for it, because this weekend, we struggled a little bit overall. Also, other teams, like Ferrari and McLaren, brought upgrades so it was kind of expected."

Antonelli has six wins this season and extended his championship lead over seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari by five points to 50, and to 59 ahead of his teammate George Russell.

"Hopefully, it is going to be our turn, in the second half of the season to bring some upgrades."

Antonelli started seventh and worked his way forward in a complex race of mixed tire strategies to finish behind world champion Lando Norris of McLaren and four-time champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull.

"It was a really good team effort," he said. "And this half of the season, we have done a tremendous job."

Looking ahead to the second half, he added: "It's going to be tight. McLaren took a massive step forward, Ferrari are quick and you can never write off Max — so it is going to be a big fight.

"And George is going to be back in shape, for sure. We just need to raise the bar and come back stronger, because it is going to be a big push."

Russell said his "terrible start" was beyond his control, just another setback to add to the list of things that have gone against him this year.

"Right now, we don't know what happened, but it's added to the list of the things that have happened in the first half of this season.

"I just pray things calm down in the second half. Honestly, I'm staying positive, because I've gone through being so disappointed with everything that's happened.

"At some point, you've got to pick yourself up and accept there are things that aren't in your control that may work against you.

"I'm not happy with how things have gone, but I'm just going to keep on staying positive and keep on pushing."

Team boss Toto Wolff conceded that it was not good enough.

"Once again, we made a mistake, screwing George's start. It is just not acceptable."

Russell recovered from the poor start by finishing seventh, after he was halted by anti-stall software that dropped him to 20th.

AFP