F1 star refuses rival's apology and handshake at Chinese GP as tense moment caught on camera

Isack Hadjar refused to accept Kimi Antonelli's apology in the immediate aftermath of Saturday's Chinese Grand Prix sprint race – and footage of the tense exchange has gone viral.

It was a frustrating sprint for Hadjar, who finished down in 15th after suffering damage during the opening lap.

The 21-year-old Red Bull driver made a decent start and climbed from P10 to P8, but in a moment that would ultimately ruin his chances of a good finish, he collided with Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli on the outside at Turn 6.

As a result of the collision, Hadjar struggled to keep up with the rest of the grid after his RB22 was damaged.

The stewards issued Antonelli a 10-second penalty after ruling he was “wholly responsible” for the contact, but it was no consolation for Hadjar, who finished five places below his starting position.

Hadjar was understandably frustrated by the incident. In fact, as he sat in the cockpit of his car while in parc ferme, the French driver snubbed an approach from Antonelli.

As seen in footage from the camera mounted on Hadjar's Red Bull, an apologetic Antonelli extended his hand but received nothing in return, as his rival waved away the apology in a telling snub.

Speaking to reporters after the sprint, Hadjar lamented the collision.

"We wanted to understand how the soft was going to perform, and with a completely destroyed floor, we can't work," he said. "I don't understand why he's overexcited like that when he's got a rocketship and will recover regardless. Anyway, it happens."

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was sympathetic towards Hadjar following the incident, but described the 10-second penalty as "relatively harsh".

"Clearly his fault, [but] I think 10 seconds is a bit harsh, relatively harsh," said Wolff.

"But at the end of the day it also cost Hadjar his position, or even his race. The stewards are in a difficult position when it comes to judging something like that, in my opinion."

The stewards noted that when Hadjar tried to overtake Antonelli on the outside of turn six, the Red Bull driver’s “front axle was ahead of the front axle of car 12 prior to the apex such that, applying the Driving Standards Guidelines, car six had earned the right to racing room on the inside.”

"The evidence showed that car 12 locked a rear wheel on approach to the apex and understeered into the side of car six as a result of which car six was pushed wide off the edge of the track and lost a position to car 12," they added.

“The stewards determined that the driver of car 12 was wholly to blame for the collision and imposed the usual penalty.”