Return of the King: Hamilton heats up as Antonelli eyes Austria rebound
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Spielberg bei Knittelfeld, Austria (AFP) — Formula One leader Kimi Antonelli said Thursday that a Mercedes upgrade would help him bounce back from a first defeat of the year but team-mate George Russell warned that Lewis Hamilton was back to his “beautiful best.”
Russell, a 28-year-old Briton, was the pre-season favorite for the drivers’ title until his teenage Silver Arrows partner Antonelli reeled off a record run of five consecutive wins, a streak that Hamilton ended in Barcelona on 14 June.
It was Hamilton’s first victory for the “scarlet scuderia,” after two consecutive second places. He climbed to second in the title race, 41 points behind Antonelli, who retired in Spain, and nine ahead of Russell.
Antonelli is keen to rebound at the Austrian Grand Prix, an event that was on Thursday declared a “heat hazard” by the International Motoring Federation (FIA) with temperatures set to hit 38 degrees Celsius or higher forecast across the race weekend.
Sunday’s race will be followed by the British, Belgian and Hungarian Grands Prix before the four-week summer break.
“I think these are all tracks where our car should adapt well,” Antonelli told a press conference. “So far this year, we’ve mainly struggled on circuits with older asphalt and low grip.
“The Red Bull Ring should be more favourable than Barcelona was for us, even though we’re expecting very high temperatures.
“It’s a very demanding track for the car, especially since the altitude reduces the amount of available oxygen.
“Having a fresh power unit is definitely good news.”
‘Smashing it’
His teammate Russell, meanwhile, was full of praise for Hamilton, a seven-time champion and former Mercedes star.
“Kimi is still very much the driver out in front and he is performing incredibly and consistently, but Ferrari feels like they’re coming — and Lewis is at the forefront.”
“It was great to see Lewis back doing what he does best,” said Russell of the 41-year-old Hamilton’s record-increasing 106th career win.
“People were writing Lewis off last year, or even the year we were teammates in 2024. Is he too old? Is he this or that? Then he goes and does it. He has been smashing it for the last four or five races.
“You don’t forget how to drive overnight. But you need yourself, your team, the set-up, the understanding of the tyres — you need everything to click and when it does, you fly — and like it was with Lewis, it’s beautiful.”
Sunday’s race is the first this year to be declared a “heat-hazard” event under an FIA rule introduced last year for races with temperatures in excess of 31 degrees. It was applied last season in Singapore and the United States.
The decision allows drivers to wear cooling vests or, if not, add five kilograms of ballast to the weight of their cars to avoid gaining an advantage.
