Antonelli happy to switch off: 'F1 break was now needed'

Antonelli currently leads the F1 drivers' standings by a comfortable margin. He is 50 points ahead Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton, and 59 points ahead of his Mercedes teammate, George Russell.

Speaking to GPblog, among others, the Italian revealed that a break is now needed. He said: "Well, I mean, I feel like the break is needed, because it's been almost eight months flat out... I mean, if I look back, I think I started the activities on 3 January this season, so it was pretty flat out."

Antonelli has built a noticeable gap in the standings, and he is not worried about losing momentum because of the break. "To be fair, also before Miami, yes, so after Japan, I thought, ‘oh my God, like four weeks break,’ just coming off Japan with momentum, race win, I was like, ‘oh my God, it's like I'm actually might lose the momentum’, because four weeks are a lot. But then, you know I remember going in Miami, FP1, feeling great in the car, I was like, ‘Okay, maybe I didn't lose the momentum.’ So I feel like the momentum is still going to be there."

The Mercedes driver continued: "I feel like the break is needed. To have a proper break, to be able to switch off a little bit, even though I'm sure after three, four days, I'm going to be bored and I'm going to be like I want to be back on track.

Similarly to Max Verstappen, Antonelli was also spotted meeting Mercedes CEO and team boss Toto Wolff in Sardinia. In the photos, Antonelli was seen alongside Toto and Susie Wolff and is also joined by his father, Marco.