Toto Wolff speaks out on Kimi Antonelli and George Russell incident

Kimi Antonelli and George Russell got up close and personal on the track during Saturday's sprint at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Mercedes teammates Antonelli and Russell sit first and second in the Formula 1 drivers' championship after four races and tangled up in a couple of racing incidents during the sixth lap of the sprint event at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Antonelli, who leads the standings ahead of his teammate, twice found his way onto the grass and voiced his frustration over the team radio.

He said: "That was very naughty. That should be a penalty, I was alongside the wing mirror."

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff intervened, saying: "Can we concentrate on the driving, please, and not on the radio moaning?"

Antonelli was beaten to pole position during a sprint qualifying session also disrupted by an unrelated red-flag stoppage.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the flashpoint, Wolff played down the internal Mercedes tension.

"It was great cinema," said the team principal.

"Tough fighting, not only between our two, but also with Lando [Norris] and further back. I enjoyed watching it.

"I really enjoy these moments because it allows us to learn and to say, 'Okay, what are we doing with this situation? How are we handling that in the future?'

"Because you don't want to lose a race, you don't want to crash into each other, and sometimes it needs a little moment to remind ourselves what our objectives are.

"This is not particularly against one or the other, but there's a framework that we want to establish, and I'd rather have it in a sprint race where it's not about a lot of points than in the main race.

"And we don't want to start with race five and have headlines like Star Wars or this is escalating because it's not."

Advantage Antonelli in the drivers' standings

The 19-year-old Italian won each of the last three Grands Prix, with Russell completing a second season Mercedes one-two in China in March.

Russell won the season opener in Australia, beating out the teenager, but missed out on the podium in consecutive fourth-placed finishes in Japan and Miami.

At the start of the Canadian GP this weekend, Antonelli holds a 26-point lead over his teammate.

Wolff would love an all-Mercedes front row in Montreal but Norris' McLaren split the two in the controversial sprint.

"You create a gap with two cars, and then you start to fight a bit, and you can lose a race. If that goes longer and a bit unlucky for us, and it's the grand prix, Norris may well win," added Wolff.