Kimi Antoneli was awarded a third-place grid penalty for the next race he competed in after taking Max Verstappen at the start of the Austrian Grand Prix.
The Mercedes rookie took evasive action under turn 3 braking on the opening lap, locking his rear brakes and forced him inside to avoid two cars. Unable to stop within time, Antoneri collided with Verstappen’s right rear corner as the Red Bull driver took power to leave the corner and eliminated both from the race on the spot.
The steward felt that Antonelli was to blame for the incident completely and gave him a grid penalty for his next race.
“In the hearing, the driver admitted to making a mistake when locking in the rear wheels while using the regular brake points, but pointed out that he would need to avoid a collision with the car 30 in front of him and release the brakes for a short time to do so,” Steward’s decision read.
“When we took evasive actions, the car didn’t hold onto the dirty inner line. So he couldn’t slow the car down to avoid a collision with Car 1.
“The Stewards determined that the incident took place on lap 1, but the other cars had no effect on the incident and that the driver of car 12 was completely ineffective. Therefore, in this case, a more generous approach to determining the one-lap 1 incident has not been applied. However, they acknowledge that the incident is not diving into the horn, but rather the result of horny behavior.
“The driver was unable to continue the race, so the grid drop for the next race will be applied.”
Antoneri also received two penalty points for the incident and gave him the first two he won on the license, but Verstappen understood the rookie’s mistake.
“I asked what had happened (at the time) because he was the only car that was with me when the wheels were hanging,” Verstappen said. “So I seemed confident he had hit me! And when I came back I saw the footage.
“It happens – all drivers have made such mistakes. Everyone has made such mistakes in their careers. You are a huge talent. He apologized to me, and it’s all fine.
“That’s really good, but for me the case was already closed. I saw what happened. There’s no intentional these things. It could happen.”
