Did Andrea Kimi Antonelli intentionally let Lando Norris past in the final stages in Qatar? At least that was Red Bull’s accusation towards the Mercedes driver after he lost his fourth place on the penultimate lap to the championship leader because he got off the track.
Max Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase was the first to give hints in this direction when he told the Dutchman shortly before crossing the finish line: “No idea what was going on with Antonelli. Looked like he had pulled over and let Norris pass.”
“But whatever, apart from that: we will fight until the end,” said Lambiase on the radio.
What could not be seen as an accusation, but rather as a flippant remark, became much more concrete after the race: “He more or less waved Lando past twice,” says motorsport consultant Helmut Marko, annoyed at Antonelli, who had had to let Norris pass before his last pit stop.
When asked if he really thinks that Antonelli just let him pass, the Austrian replies: “It was so obvious.”
Wolff fumes: “Brainless!”
Mercedes Motorsport Director Toto Wolff is stunned by the allegations against his driver: “Oh please… Helmut! That’s complete, utter nonsense, and it blows me away to even hear something like that,” he shakes his head when asked about the statements.
“We are fighting for second place in the championship, which is important for us. Kimi is fighting for a possible third place. How brainless do you have to be to even claim something like that?” he criticizes his compatriot.
“And it annoys me because I’m annoyed by the race itself, how it went. I’m annoyed because of the mistake at the end. I’m annoyed because of other mistakes. And then to hear such nonsense really blows me away,” said Wolff.
The Mercedes team boss continued: “Why should we even think about intervening in a drivers’ championship? You really have to question yourself when you see ghosts everywhere.”
Statements trigger a shitstorm
You can see what Red Bull has done with its comments just in Mercedes’ posts on
Wolff also spoke to Lambiase about this, who apologized to him: “I said to GP (Lambiase; editor’s note) that there was probably quite a social media storm – Bradley (communications manager Bradley Lord; note) told me that. And GP said: ‘Sorry if I triggered that. I didn’t see the incident.'”
Wolff shows at least a little understanding for his statements: “He was of course emotional at the moment because he lost two points.” Because of this, Verstappen is twelve points behind Norris instead of ten, and a third place is enough for Norris in Abu Dhabi – otherwise he would have had to come second if Verstappen won at the season finale.
Antonelli describes errors
But what had really happened to Antonelli? The Italian describes: “I pushed pretty hard with the hard tires and at one point I got into DRS, but then I had a huge moment in Turn 9 and almost went off. As a result, I went off the track and lost the position to Lando, which was very annoying,” he says.
Antonelli’s problem: He was driving in the turbulent air of Carlos Sainz in front of him, who was clinging to his third place. “This of course makes the car more unpredictable because you have less downforce and the tires overheat more,” he says.
“But I went in a little faster and then suddenly lost the tail. I didn’t expect that and at such high speed I slipped off the track. In the next corner I had another huge moment because of all the dirt and I went off the track again. I have to look at it in detail, but it was pretty annoying.”
Antonelli is convinced that he could have defended fourth place without the mistake, because Norris was unable to get past the Mercedes in the previous laps despite DRS. “He came with a lot more pace, but in the turbulent air he simply couldn’t pass,” said the youngster.
“I was pretty relaxed because he was even outside the DRS window for a few laps. I felt like I could have held him, but I just made a mistake.”
The only one who was happy with it was, of course, Lando Norris: “Thanks, Kimi,” he laughs.