Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli received death threats after the Qatar Grand Prix; Red Bull expresses regret
Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli received death threats and abusive messages on social media after the Qatar Grand Prix, prompting Red Bull to express regret for comments made about the incident.
According to Mercedes, Antonelli changed his Instagram profile picture to black on Monday morning after receiving numerous offensive messages, many of which included death threats.
The controversy began when Max Verstappen’s race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, told Verstappen over the team radio that it “seems” Antonelli “just pulled the car off the track and let Lando Norris pass” after the Mercedes driver ran wide at Turn 10 on the penultimate lap and lost fourth place to the McLaren driver. That overtake gave Norris two extra championship points, meaning he leads Verstappen by 12 points rather than 10 going into the title triple-header in Abu Dhabi this weekend.
In a statement issued on Monday, Red Bull said: “The comments made before the end of and immediately after the Qatar GP, which imply that Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli deliberately allowed Lando Norris to overtake him, are clearly inaccurate. The video shows that Antonelli temporarily lost control of his car, thereby allowing Norris to pass. We are sincerely sorry that this led to online attacks against Kimi.”
Red Bull did not, however, issue an apology for making the initial implication that Antonelli intentionally let Norris through. A Mercedes representative said Lambiase had apologized to Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, who confronted him after the race about his remarks.
Antonelli said he had been pushing hard to try to catch the driver in third place (Carlos S...), who was just ahead of him. “It was very difficult with the airflow and the tyres were overheating a lot,” Antonelli said. “I was pushing quite a bit to get close to Carlos. Eventually I was in DRS, or very close, but into Turn Nine I went a bit too quickly and had a big moment. It was a bit unexpected — I lost the rear and went off the track. I just need to see why I made the mistake and what I did differently. I went in faster, but not very differently. It’s a shame I lost the place, because that would have been two extra points.”
Source: BBC
