Stewards handed Italian and Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli a three-place grid penalty for the F1 British GP after colliding on the opening lap with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen in today’s Austrian round.
From 7th on the grid, Max Verstappen made a good start as he cleared Liam Lawson. He was then setting up a potential switchback on George Russell out of turn 3. The Mercedes driver was in a battle with Lewis Hamilton. The four-time World Champion looked to take advantage of it.
Running in 9th on the run down to turn 3 at the F1 Austrian GP, Antonelli lost the car under braking as he got it all wrong and smashed into the right rear of Verstappen. He was initially trying to avoid Bortoleto and Lawson by going to the inside, but could not control his car. It was game over for both with damage to their front left and right rear corners, respectively.
A DNF for Max Verstappen leaves him 61 points adrift of Oscar Piastri heading to the F1 British GP, meaning his already slim title hopes took a massive blow, with Kimi Antonelli 28 points adrift of Lewis Hamilton in the fight for P6 in the Drivers’ Championship.
FIA stewards’ verdict on Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli collision at F1 Austrian GP and the penalty imposed for the British round
After hearing from both Antonelli and the Mercedes team representative, and reviewing video evidence, the stewards deemed Antonelli as the cause of the Lap 1 incident with Verstappen. Though they acknowledged that the collision had occurred due to a lock-up, they ruled that Antonelli had breached Appendix L, Chapter IV, Article 2 d) of the FIA International Sporting Code.
“The driver of Car 12 locked up the rear brakes into Turn 3 and collided with Car 1. 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.”
While they noted that the incident had not been malicious, they explained that they could take a lenient approach as other cars had not influenced the incident. They handed Antonelli a three-place grid drop for the British GP, and two penalty points.
“The Stewards determine that, although the incident happened in Lap 1, no other cars influenced the incident and the driver of Car 12 is fully at fault. Therefore, the more lenient approach to judging Lap 1 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.”
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