Antonelli reflects on his DNF in Barcelona

“I feel a bit empty to be fair right now, but it is what it is. Races are like this and it comes and goes,” said Antonelli right after the race, quoted by the official Formula 1 website.

“For sure the pace was good today. I struggled a little bit in stint one but stint two and three, I felt like I had quite a lot of pace and of course it's a shame because it was like three laps from the end, almost there. But as I said, races are like this, it's no one's fault and now we look forward to the next one,” the Italian driver continued.

He also admitted that he thinks that if he could have made a move in stint two on George Russell, it would have been a bit of a different race because the pace was really good especially at the end of the stint.

“I feel like it maybe would have been very close with Lewis with the VSC, so maybe we could have fought but it is what it is. I think also my side, yesterday I didn't do a good job so definitely now a week of rest and then ready for Austria to come back stronger and be back at the best form,” he concluded.

Antonelli started the race behind Russell and Lewis Hamilton, who eventually won the race. Mercedes employed a two stop strategy, opposed to Ferrari who put Hamilton on three stop strategy due to the hot conditions. The seven time World Champion had a strong pace but likely would have had to overtake again both Mercedes drivers after making his final pit stop.

After a short Virtual Safety Car Hamilton was allowed to pit and rejoin in the lead with Antonelli believing if he had got ahead of Russell earlier, he might have been able to stop Hamilton from claiming his first victory with Ferrari.