Kimi Antonelli Responds To Red Bull’s Explosive Accusation

Kim Antonelli has spoken out after being the subject of a shock accusation from Red Bull after the Qatar Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen secured a seventh victory of the 2025 season at the Lusail International Circuit to take the F1 championship race right to the wire.

The win in the penultimate means Verstappen is just 12 points behind leader Lando Norris, who had to settle for fourth amid a controversial approach from McLaren - who did not opt for an early pitstop on the the seventh lap like virtually the rest of the grid.

Norris was fifth in the final lap but managed to overtake Mercedes' Antonelli to get fourth after the young Italian went off track due to what appeared to be a snap of oversteer.

However, Red Bull - specifically Verstappen's race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase caused a huge stir by suggesting that Antonelli let Norris go past him.

“Not sure what happened to Antonelli, looks like he just pulled over and let Norris through," Lambiase claimed over the team radio.

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko took a similar view and claimed it was "so obvious". When GPblog asked him if he was annoyed about Norris' late move to take fourth he said, “Yes, because it was twice where he more or less waved Lando by.”

After the race, 18-year-old Antonelli was forced to clarify the situation and explain that he simply made a mistake that allowed Norris to capitalise.

Antonelli responded to the claims made by Red Bull. Image: ViaPlay

Speaking to ViaPlay, Antonelli said: "I was trying to do my race, I was trying to get the podium, I was pushing hard.. and just lost the rear, and went off track.. that wasn't on purpose, nothing to do about it.."

Mercedes principal Toto Wolff also felt the need to weigh on the suggestion that Antonelli willingly let Norris move ahead at the death, calling the accusations "utter nonsense" with Mercedes still pushing to be second in the constructors' standings.

He fumed: "Bless him, Helmut. This is total utter nonsense that blows my mind even to hear that,"

"We're fighting for P2 in the championship, which is important for us. Kimi's fighting for a potential P3. I mean, how brainless can you be to even say something like this?

"And it annoys me because I'm annoyed with the race itself, how it went. I'm annoyed with the mistake at the end. I'm annoyed with other mistakes and then hearing such nonsense. Blows my mind."

Wolff revealed that had a conversation with Lambiase about the error from Antonelli and that "everything is clear" as he explained that the Mercedes man "just went off".

He added: "Why would we do this? Why would we even think about interfering in a driver championship? You really need to check yourself whether you see ghosts."

F1 final race explained

Going into Abu Dhabi next week, Norris is still the frontrunner on 408 points and will be crowned F1 champion for the first time if he secures a podim.

But with Verstappen only 12 behind on 396, he will claim a fifth consecutive championship if he wins and Norris finishes fourth of below.

Piastri, meanwhile, can still win the title but needs to win at Yas Marina and hope that his McLaren teammate Norris finishes P6 or lower.