Verstappen doesn’t blame Antonelli for their race-ending crash at Spielberg
Having retired from the Austrian Grand Prix after a collision with Andrea Kimi Antonelli, reigning champion Max Verstappen refused to blame the Italian teenager.
Despite his promising pace on Friday, Andrea Kimi Antonelli started the Austrian Grand Prix from P9 on the grid. The Italian displayed strong performance in qualifying, but he was unable to complete his last push lap in Q3 due to yellow flags brought out for a spin of Pierre Gasly.
Although he hoped for better fortunes in the Spielberg race, his afternoon ended after just three corners. The Bologna-born driver locked up the rear brakes of his Mercedes into Turn 3, and was unable to decelerate enough to avoid the back of Max Verstappen’s RB21.
With both cars having suffered significant damage, both Antonelli and Verstappen were forced to retire from the Austrian Grand Prix.
Both drivers were summoned to the stewards over the incident, where the verdict was that Antonelli was “fully at fault”, and the Italian was hit with a three-place grid penalty for the upcoming British Grand Prix as well as two penalty points on his licence
Explaining the incident from his point of view, the four-time world champion did not blame the Italian teenager, claiming that every driver has made such mistakes during their career.
“No, no, I just asked what happened, because he was the only car that was there with me with his wheel hanging off, so I was like, maybe, well, I'm pretty sure that he hit me.
“Then of course I saw the footage once I came back and it happens. Every driver has made a mistake like that. Everyone has made a mistake like that in their careers and also Kimi is a very big talent, so he learns from that and that's all fine.”
