Max Verstappen’s clan has made serious accusations against Kimi Antonelli, bringing Toto Wolff, the boss of Mercedes, out of his hinges.
Tension is at its peak in F1 as the last Grand Prix of the season looms, Sunday in Abu Dhabi. Consequence of the new difficult weekend experienced by the McLarens. While Lando Norris had another opportunity to win the world champion title, poor race strategy meant the British driver had to settle for fourth place.
In the world championship standings, the Bristol native is only 12 points ahead of Max Verstappen, winner in Qatar, and 16 over his teammate Oscar Piastri, second on the Losail circuit. But the situation could have been even worse for Lando Norris if he had not managed to overtake Kimi Antonelli in the final laps. In the event of fifth place, his lead would have been only 10 points and a third place in Abu Dhabi would then have been insufficient to win the world champion title.
The overtaking of Kimi Antonelli was also the source of a big controversy at the end of the Grand Prix. The fault lies with the production which missed this crucial moment, even suggesting, by switching afterwards, that the Mercedes driver had opened the door to the leader of the world championship.
“This is total nonsense”
“ I don’t know what happened to Antonelli, Max, it looks like he just slowed down and let Norris pass,” Gianpiero Lambiase, Max Verstappen’s engineer, whispered to his driver on the radio. However, the replays quickly showed that Kimi Antonelli had in fact made a mistake under pressure from Lando Norris. “I was attacking a lot to get back on Sainz. But in turn 10, I had a scare and almost lost control. So I went off the track and lost the position to Lando,” he explained after the Grand Prix.
However, Helmut Marko, the Red Bull consultant, remained convinced that Kimi Antonelli had voluntarily let the McLaren driver pass. “That’s twice he’s more or less let Lando pass. It was completely obvious. Antonelli is now helping our main competitors. In Austria, he hit Verstappen at the back,” he choked up after the race. Enough to make Toto Wolff, the boss of Mercedes, jump.
“This is complete nonsense. he said at the microphone of Sky Sports. I am stunned to hear this. How brainless do you have to be to say something like that? Why would we interfere in a drivers championship? »
