Kimi Antonelli left overheating after bizarre cooling vest failure in Austin

Kimi Antonelli has revealed that an unusual cooling vest failure left him overheating during sprint qualifying for the United States Grand Prix.

Antonelli endured a difficult sprint qualifying session at the Circuit of the Americas, failing to progress beyond SQ2.

Unlike in Singapore, Mercedes didn’t appear to have the pace of either McLaren or Red Bull.

While teammate George Russell progressed into SQ3, Antonelli was knocked out early and was set to start the sprint race from 11th on the grid.

After the session, Antonelli explained that a new cooling vest left him overheating in sprint qualifying.

Ahead of Friday’s action, the FIA declared this weekend as a “heat hazard.”

As a result, drivers had the option of wearing a specially designed cooling vest, which will become mandatory next season.

“I struggled in the car because I had a few physical issues,” Antonelli said. “But the car felt good, to be honest, and I was confident in SQ2.

“I was wearing the cooling vest, and we had a failure, so instead of cooling, it was warming me up, so I had a big struggle in the session.”

Antonelli’s poor sprint qualifying display wasn’t entirely down to his discomfort.

The 19-year-old also struggled with frequent brake locking throughout the session.

“I just need to figure out why I suffered so much with locking,” Antonelli added.

“It is obviously very disappointing because SQ1 felt good. But I just struggled with locking. I had two big lock-ups on the lap and lost quite a lot of time.

“I’m disappointed as I had the pace to be in SQ3, but now we will focus on Saturday.”

Russell labels Hulkenberg “a real surprise”

Russell is set to start Saturday’s sprint race from fifth.

He was beaten by Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg, who was the standout qualifier on Friday.

Reflecting on sprint qualifying, Russell conceded it “wasn’t a good day” for the team.

“Nico [Hulkenberg] did an amazing lap to go P4. I think that was a real surprise, so congrats to him,” Russell explained.

“But as we’ve sort of been saying all year, on the good days, we’re in the fight; on the bad days, we’re P5 – and today wasn’t a good day. We just got P5. Sprint races are tricky sometimes. I think potentially we have a better race car than we do qualifying car.

“We’re struggling a lot in the high speed, but I think when you’re going a bit slower in the race through the high speed, and the car’s not as low to the ground, it could be a bit faster.

“But, yeah, I think this is roughly where we’re at – sort of in the fight for P4.”