Antonelli endures tough Monza weekend as Wolff criticizes rookie

Andrea Kimi Antonelli endured a difficult home weekend at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza on Sunday, his promising rookie campaign marred by a practice off and race penalties that left the 19 year old demoted to ninth and prompted unusually sharp public criticism from Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff. George Russell, by contrast, took fifth as Mercedes struggled to turn qualifying speed into strong race results.

Antonelli’s problems began in second practice when he ran off into the gravel, cutting short his long run preparation. He qualified seventh, one place behind Russell, but a poor start on the opening lap dropped him down the order. The Italian recovered to eighth on the road, but repeated track limits breaches and a five second penalty for forcing Alex Albon wide relegated him to ninth in the official classification. Antonelli conceded that his earlier mistakes had hurt his preparation, saying he had not completed long runs in FP2 and therefore was not fully ready for the race.

Wolff, who has typically protected young drivers from public scrutiny, described Antonelli’s weekend as underwhelming and singled out a pattern of costly errors. “You cannot put the car in the...