Penalty Confirmed After Verstappen–Antonelli Collision – But Was It the Right Call? Fans and Experts Divided Over British GP Decision
Max Verstappen was taken out on the first lap of the Austrian Grand Prix by Kimi Antonelli and the Mercedes driver will suffer for it next time out at Silverstone
Kimi Antonelli took Max Verstappen and himself out on the first lap of the Austrian Grand Prix(Image: APA/AFP via Getty Images)
Kimi Antonelli has been handed a grid drop for the British Grand Prix for causing the first-lap smash which took Max Verstappen out of Red Bull’s home race. The Dutchman was nothing more than a passenger as rookie Antonelli locked up his tyres and smashed into the side of his car at turn three.
Verstappen was initially unimpressed, jumping on the radio to tell his Red Bull race engineer Simon Rennie that he had been “hit like crazy” and slamming the “f***ing idiots” who caused the collision. At that point, he did not know that it was Antonelli who had taken him out.
He quickly calmed down, accepting the teenager’s immediate apology and making it clear he would not be holding it against Antonelli. “Every driver has made a mistake like that. No-one does that on purpose,” said Verstappen, reflecting on the incident.
Antonelli was also unable to continue, having damaged his Mercedes beyond repair. And, because they could not punish him in that race as a result of his retirement, the stewards have elected to hand the youngster a three-place grid drop for next Sunday’s Silverstone race..
The stewards said: “The driver of car 12 [Antonelli] locked up the rear brakes into turn three and collided with car 1 [Verstappen]. In the hearing the driver admitted that he made a mistake as he locked up the rear wheels while using his regular braking point, but also pointed out that he needed to avoid a collision with car 30 in front of him and released the brakes for a short period of time to do so.
“Taking evasive action led to the car having less grip on the dirty inside line and therefore he was not able to decelerate the car in a way to avoid the collision with car 1. The stewards determine that, although the incident happened in lap one, no other cars influenced the incident and the driver of car 12 is fully at fault.
“Therefore the more lenient approach to judging lap one incidents has not been applied in this case. However, they also acknowledge that the incident was not a blatant attempt to dive into the corner but rather a result of the evasive action after locking up. As the driver was not able to continue the race a grid drop for the next race is applied.”
Antonelli gave the air of a man who knew it was coming, as he said: “I didn’t brake too late, but when I braked I braked hard and I locked the rears and just couldn’t stop the car. I had to avoid [Liam] Lawson but it was too late because I locked the front and instead of decelerating, the car was just taking speed and the crash was inevitable.
“I’m just super sorry to the team and of course to Max, because obviously he was just a passenger. It’s a big mistake and we now move forward and focus on Silverstone. We’ll see if we get a penalty or not, but it’s important to get back and to start doing like I did in Canada.”
George Russell finished fifth to ensure Mercedes would at least take a handful of points home. The same could not be said for Red Bull with Yuki Tsunoda 16th and dead last of the cars still running, two laps down on race-winner Lando Norris by the end.
