Kimi Antonelli Reveals What Max Verstappen Said to Him After Qatar GP Incident

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli has revealed what Max Verstappen said to him after an incident during the Qatar Grand Prix.

Last weekend, Verstappen kept in title hopes alive by winning the Qatar Grand Prix ahead of McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Williams star Carlos Sainz.

Meanwhile, title rival Lando Norris finished in fourth place.

For the last parts of the race, Norris was chasing Antonelli, who was in fourth place.

In the closing stages, Norris managed to overtake Antonelli after the young Italian made a mistake at Turn 10.

At the time, Verstappen's race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, said: "Not sure what happened to Antonelli Max, looks like he just pulled over and let Norris through."

This resulted in Antonelli receiving a wave of abuse on social media, but replays showed that the Mercedes rookie did, in fact, make a mistake and did not intentionally let Norris through.

Red Bull have since released a statement claiming they 'sincerely regret' comments made during the aftermath of the incident.

Speaking on Thursday ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Antonelli revealed that he exchanged words with both Verstappen and Lambiase.

He said: "It was nice to see the Red Bull statement. Also, GP [Lambiase] came to talk to me as well and we clarified.

"I also clarified with Max, and, you know, that was nice. But apart from that, you know, after that I got a lot of support, which was nice and definitely also it helped to kind of forget what happened and focus on to this weekend."

Antonelli continued: "He saw what happened, so he wasn't bothered by anything. He even showed support, so, you know, really, really, nice from him.

"I cannot really say what he said because it contained some bad words, the message! It just said don't worry about these kind of people because they're brainless. So, yeah, just focus on the job. He showed a lot of support."

This weekend, all eyes will be on Norris, Verstappen and Piastri as one of them will be crowned the 2025 Formula 1 world champion.

Norris knows that with his 12-point advantage, a top-three finish will secure his maiden world title.