Max Verstappen forgives Antonelli despite three-place penalty for Silverstone grid after Austria crash
The stewards’ panel at the Austrian GP penalized Bologna driver Kimi Antonelli with a three-place grid drop for the British GP at Silverstone after he collided with Max Verstappen’s Red Bull at turn 3 on the first lap. The judges strictly applied the rules, while the four-time world champion chose to forgive the young driver.
When Kimi Antonelli entered the stewards’ room, he openly took full responsibility for the first-lap incident with Max Verstappen. Usually, drivers try to find every excuse in their career to minimize damage, but the young Bolognese must serve a three-place grid penalty at Silverstone. The decision was justified and unquestionable.
However, the forgiveness for his first “sin” in F1 came earlier, in the runoff area, as Kimi walked away from his damaged Mercedes and met Max Verstappen. It would have been natural to expect the four-time world champion furious, as often happens when a rookie crosses wheels with an established champion, but instead, when the Dutchman realized the Italian had caused the collision, he took on an almost paternal attitude, seeing a possible successor in Antonelli.
Max was not angry at all.
“No, I just asked him what happened because his was the only car besides mine with a detached wheel, so I was quite sure he hit me,” Max Verstappen explained. He did not raise his voice but accepted Kimi’s apology.
“Then, of course, I watched the footage once back in the garage. These things can happen to any driver. Everyone has made this kind of mistake in their career, and I consider Kimi a great talent who will learn from this episode. It’s okay.”
The stewards were less lenient than Max and enforced the FIA regulations. The Mercedes driver locked his rear wheels braking into turn 3 on the first lap, hitting Verstappen and causing both cars to retire from the Grand Prix. Kimi Antonelli explained he had to avoid Liam Lawson’s Racing Point ahead, releasing the brakes briefly. This evasive action reduced traction on the dirty inside line, so he couldn’t slow down enough to avoid the collision with car number 1.
The stewards stated: “… although the incident occurred on lap 1, no other cars were involved in the action, and the driver of car 12 is fully responsible. Therefore, the more lenient approach to judging lap 1 incidents was not applied in this case. However, they also recognize the incident was not a blatant dive into the corner but rather the result of an evasive maneuver after locking the wheels. Since the driver was unable to continue the race, a grid drop is applied for the next race.”
The case is closed. Now it’s up to Kimi to learn from this experience and look ahead to Silverstone, remembering that three grid places are at stake.
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