- Max Verstappen suffered his first DNF in 31 races in Austria on Sunday
- The Dutchman was hit by Kimi Antonelli on Turn Three of the first lap
- The incident ended the race for both drivers and Verstappen was not happy
Max Verstappen was left fuming with Kimi Antonelli after the Mercedes driver collided with his Red Bull on the first lap of the Austrian Grand Prix, putting them both out of the race.
Verstappen suffered his first retirement of the Formula One season on Sunday after being hit by Antonelli on Turn Three of Red Bull’s home Austrian Grand Prix.
The four-times world champion had started seventh on the grid, with Italian rookie Antonelli ninth, at a circuit where he has won a record five times.
Antonelli, who clearly caused incident, also retired and the safety car was deployed.
Verstappen labelled the 18-year-old a f***ing idiot’ on his radio after telling his team ‘I’m out. I got hit like crazy.’
‘Sorry about that, I locked the rear,’ Antonelli told his team before he was seen apologising to Verstappen, who appeared to have calmed down and accepted it.
Max Verstappen (L) was left fuming with Kimi Antonelli (R) after crashing out of the Grand Prix
Antonelli (centre) collided with Verstappen on the third turn of the race at the Red Bull Ring
Neither car was able to continue, Verstappen (left) suffering his first DNF of the year
Antonelli (R) appeared to apologise as two drivers had words while their cars were removed
The retirement ended a run of 31 Grand Prix in the points for the Dutch driver, whose fans throng in their thousands to the team’s home race.
Sky Sports pundit Karun Chandhok gave his thoughts on the dramatic moment, saying: ‘Could you put it down as a rookie error [from Antonelli]?
‘I’m not sure Max Verstappen will take that as any consolation,’ implying that a penalty could be coming the way of the 18 year old.
The race had started later than scheduled after Carlos Sainz’s Williams was stuck on the grid as cars moved away for the formation lap.
Sainz eventually got going and returned to the pitlane, where his car’s brakes caught fire before being extinguished by mechanics with smoke still billowing out as he was pushed back and into retirement.
Antonelli has had a fairly underwhelming start to life as a Mercedes driver with just one podium to his name so far.
His team-mate George Russell already had five and a race win heading into Sunday’s race.
There have been reports that Mercedes are interest in bringing in four-time world champion Verstappen and it would be Antonelli who would then need to be relocated.
