'P2 was the maximum we could have achieved' in Malaysia – Antonelli

Kimi Antonelli sits 84 points clear at the top of the Drivers' Championship following his P2 finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia – with team mate and rival George Russell retiring towards the end – but insists the Mercedes team “still have work to do”.

The Italian started from third on the grid in Sunday's race in Sepang, and chose intermediate tyres for the mixed conditions at lights out – which proved to be the right choice as he overtook polesitter Max Verstappen on the run down to Turn 1.

Antonelli then lost ground to the Dutch driver after the first Safety Car, brought out by Valtteri Bottas beaching his car in the gravel, but managed to see off a challenge by Russell to stay second.

Running in P2, he was already set to extend his lead in the championship by three points when his team mate had his race cut short on Lap 50 with a suspected power unit failure behind another Safety Car – dealing a blow to the Briton’s already slim title chances.

The 20-year-old said afterwards that Mercedes still had “a lot of work to do” as the team had been “struggling”, but added he was satisfied with finishing second to Verstappen.

"I think today was the maximum we could have done," he explained. "Massive congrats to Max and Red Bull for the incredible weekend. And on our side, a lot of work to do – we've been struggling a bit more than usual, but still really happy to come away with P2."

Speaking to the media post-race, Antonelli added: "I’m really happy with P2. It’s a result we deserved because we’ve been... Well, to be fair, after the start I thought we could have had a chance to win today.

"But then after the restart, you know, Max overtook me, also George overtook me. Then I was able to regain P2, and then from that point on I was there in P2 the whole time. So yeah, that was what we deserved today."

When asked about Russell's DNF, Antonelli said it was a disappointing result for his team mate and Mercedes overall.

“It’s obviously a big shame for him and the team as well, because it would have been a good result for the team," he said. "But unfortunately we’ve been suffering from this reliability this year. I’m sure the team is doing its best to understand where the issue is coming from and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

It was Russell’s second mechanical DNF of the season after also failing to finish in Canada, whilst Antonelli had to retire from the Grand Prix in Barcelona with a power unit problem.

Despite his lead at the top of the drivers' standings, Antonelli says he’s taking nothing for granted, and the issues they’ve had with reliability impacts the way he goes into each race weekend.

“[Reliability is] why it’s really important that whenever I go on track, especially with things in my control, I need to make sure that I do my best,” he added.