Mercedes' Antonelli says car 'in a better place' but Russell takes 'step backwards'

Formula One F1 - Singapore Grand Prix - Marina Bay Street Circuit, Singapore - October 10, 2026 Mercedes' Andrea Kimi Antonelli ahead of the sprint race REUTERS/Edgar Su

SINGAPORE, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Kimi Antonelli ⁠said Mercedes have got to the bottom of the issues on the new upgrade on his car ⁠after he qualified fourth-fastest on Saturday in Singapore, but George Russell feels he has taken a "step backwards" ‌after a crash in the sprint.

Formula One championship leader Antonelli, who leads Russell by 89 points, is looking to become the youngest ever world champion at 20 and will line up behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen and the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.

Antonelli said he and the ​team are beginning to come to grips with a new upgrade package ⁠that was introduced in Sepang -- where he finished ⁠second -- while Russell reverted to an older setup that helped him win in Baku last month.

"It definitely felt in ⁠a ‌better place today, even though the window is very small where the car operates," Antonelli said after Saturday's qualifying session.

"The team did a really good job because, first of all, we found the issues. Now we're able ⁠to understand more of the package and now it's more about trying ​to find the right window with ‌the setup to make sure that the package works at its best.

"Let's see what we can do ⁠from P4 but a ​podium will be very good."

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff had said on Friday that it had been tricky to assess the upgrade package over consecutive race weekends, with the team running "two test pilots" on the Marina Bay Street Circuit to weigh up the ⁠upgrade's value.

"On Kimi's side the updates seem to have worked now," ​Wolff said.

"He and his engineers have dialled out the problems and we got closer and closer. We're missing a tenth and a half or two-tenths, and that is, at least for qualifying, positive.

"It will take some more proof of concept until I'm ⁠feeling warm and fuzzy. But we will have more data tomorrow, in the race, whether we can have less degradation."

Wolff, who on Friday had dismissed suggestions of favouritism within the Mercedes team, said Russell had made a rare mistake to spin out of the lead in the sprint, reminiscent of a last-lap crash at Singapore in 2023 that cost him ​a shot at victory.

Russell, who was sixth-fastest in Q3 but is set to start ⁠at the back of the grid due to an engine penalty, said he used the qualifying session to test whether ​his car was in working order after retiring from the sprint.

"Something was a ‌bit odd because we had great pace yesterday, and Kimi's ​in a similar position to where he was yesterday," Russell said.

"But I've taken a step backwards and the car didn't feel quite the same... It'll be tough racing (tomorrow)."

(Reporting by Tom Westbrook, editing by Pritha Sarkar)

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一级方程式赛车（F1）——新加坡大奖赛——新加坡滨海湾街道赛道——2026年10月10日，梅赛德斯车队的安德烈亚·基米·安东内利在冲刺赛前。路透社/埃德加·苏

新加坡，10 月 10 日（路透社）——基米·安东内利在周六新加坡站排位赛中获得第四快成绩后表示，梅赛德斯车队已经解决了他的赛车新升级版本的问题，但乔治·拉塞尔在冲刺赛中发生撞车事故后感觉自己“退步”了。

一级方程式锦标赛领头羊安东内利领先拉塞尔 89 分，他希望以 20 岁之龄成为有史以来最年轻的世界冠军，他将排在红牛车队的马克斯·维斯塔潘和法拉利车队的查尔斯·勒克莱尔和刘易斯·汉密尔顿之后。

安东内利表示，他和车队正在逐渐适应在雪邦赛道推出的全新升级套件——他在那里获得了第二名——而拉塞尔则恢复了上个月在巴库帮助他赢得比赛的旧配置。

“今天感觉赛车的状态确实好多了，尽管赛车的行驶窗口非常小，”安东内利在周六的排位赛后说道。

“团队做得非常出色，首先是因为我们找到了问题所在。现在我们能够更深入地了解这个软件包，接下来的重点是找到合适的设置窗口，以确保软件包发挥最佳性能。”

“让我们看看从第四名能做到什么程度，但登上领奖台就非常好了。”

梅赛德斯车队领队托托·沃尔夫周五表示，在连续的比赛周末评估升级套件非常棘手，车队在滨海湾街道赛道上派出了“两名测试车手”来权衡升级的价值。

沃尔夫说：“就基米而言，这些更新似乎已经奏效了。”

“他和他的工程师们已经解决了所有问题，我们离目标越来越近了。我们现在只差十分之一秒半到十分之二秒，至少对于排位赛来说，这是个好消息。”

“还需要更多概念验证才能让我完全放心。但明天我们将获得更多数据，看看能否减少性能下降。”

沃尔夫周五否认了梅赛德斯车队内部存在偏袒的说法，他表示拉塞尔在冲刺阶段罕见地犯了一个错误，从领先位置滑出，这让人想起他在 2023 年新加坡站最后一圈的撞车事故，那次事故让他失去了获胜的机会。

拉塞尔在第三节排位赛中排名第六，但由于引擎处罚，他将从发车格的最后一位起跑。他表示，在冲刺赛退赛后，他利用排位赛来测试他的赛车是否处于正常工作状态。

“情况有点奇怪，因为我们昨天的速度很快，而且基米现在的位置和昨天差不多，”拉塞尔说。

“但我感觉自己退步了，赛车的感觉也不一样了……明天的比赛会很艰难。”

（汤姆·韦斯特布鲁克报道，普里塔·萨卡尔编辑）

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