Red Bull regret suggesting Kimi Antonelli moved aside for Lando Norris
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British media reported that Kimi Antonelli had changed his Instagram profile picture to black after receiving hurtful messages on social media, several of which were death threats.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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DOHA – Red Bull issued a statement of regret on Dec 1 after Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli received online abuse following remarks that accused the Italian rookie of moving aside for McLaren’s Formula One leader Lando Norris at the Qatar Grand Prix.
British media reported that Antonelli had changed his Instagram profile picture to black after receiving hurtful messages on social media, several of which were death threats.
Red Bull’s 82-year-old motorsport consultant Helmut Marko told reporters after the Nov 30 race, won by his team’s driver Max Verstappen, that Antonelli “more or less waved Lando by” for fourth place on the penultimate lap.
Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase also observed over the radio that Antonelli appeared to have made it easy.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff angrily accused his fellow-Austrian Marko of “total, utter nonsense” and Red Bull moved to calm the situation when it emerged Antonelli, 19, had faced social media abuse.
“Comments made before the end of and immediately after the Qatar GP suggesting that Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli had deliberately allowed Lando Norris to overtake him are clearly incorrect,” the statement said.
“Replay footage shows Antonelli momentarily losing control of his car, thus allowing Norris to pass him.
“We sincerely regret that this has led to Kimi receiving online abuse.”
The overtake meant Norris, whose car has a Mercedes engine, goes to the final round in Abu Dhabi with a 12-point lead over Verstappen rather than 10.
Dutchman Verstappen came home 7.995 seconds ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri with Carlos Sainz third for Williams, ahead of Norris and the Mercedes pair of Antonelli and George Russell.
Antonelli explained the incident as a mistake made in dirty air while following Sainz’s Williams – also a Mercedes-powered car – and he almost crashed.
“I was pushing hard to stay ahead of Norris in the closing stages and unfortunately just pushed a little bit too hard. I got out of shape through Turn 9 and then had a massive snap of oversteer,” said the Italian rookie.
Wolff said he also spoke to Lambiase and cleared the air, with the engineer explaining he had not seen the situation.
“But why would we do this? Why would we even think about interfering in a driver championship? You really need to check yourself whether you are seeing ghosts,” added Wolff.
McLaren have already won the constructors' championship for a second successive year and Mercedes are second overall, 33 points clear of Red Bull in third with a maximum 43 still to be won.
In the drivers’ race, Verstappen’s title hopes were given a lifeline following McLaren’s strategic horror show in Qatar.
It was Verstappen’s seventh win of the season, his third in succession in Qatar and 70th of his career.
He is now second in the championship, 12 points behind Norris and four ahead of Piastri. At the end of August, the Dutch driver had been 104 points off Piastri’s lead.
McLaren, who had both cars disqualified in Las Vegas a week earlier while Verstappen won
Then it all went wrong again for the champions.
Verstappen passed Norris at the start and pitted from second on Lap 7 when the safety car was deployed, while the McLarens stayed out and paid the price – Piastri ending up second and Norris fourth.
“I didn’t expect to win today, that’s for sure,” Verstappen, 28, told Sky Sports.
“Looking at pure pace, we were not on the same level as McLaren, but we made the right call, as most of the grid did, in boxing under the safety car.
“That almost gives you a free pit stop and that made the race for me. For sure, that call at the pit stop made me win the race today.”
Australia’s Piastri, who had a potential win taken from him by the poor decisions, said: “I’m speechless. I have no words. Clearly we didn’t get it right tonight. I drove the best race I could and there was nothing left out there.
“In hindsight it’s pretty obvious what we should have done, but we’ll discuss it as a team. It’s obviously tough to swallow.”
McLaren team chief Andrea Stella added: “It was a decision not to pit and in fairness we didn’t expect everyone else to pit. Obviously, once everyone pitted, it makes that the right thing to do.
“When you have the lead car, you don’t know what the others are going to do. The main reason was related to not expecting everyone else to pit, so it was a decision.
“And as a matter of fact, it wasn’t the correct decision.” REUTERS. AFP
