Sky Sports forced to apologise and mute microphones during awkward cooldown room incident after Singapore GP
Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft had to quickly apologise after hearing what Max Verstappen said in an awkward moment in the cooldown room.
Having secured his first race win of the season last week at the Bahrain Grand Prix, which took place in Malaysia, Verstappen made it two wins in two after a stellar drive in Singapore, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc crossing the line in second while championship leader Kimi Antonelli came in third.
As has become tradition this season, Sky Sports showed a feed of the three drivers speaking in the cooldown room post-race, but the broadcaster was forced to immediately apologise and cut the microphones after catching the trio swearing live on TV.
Sky Sports apologise for Max Verstappen comment in F1 cooldown room
Since the introduction of the F1 cooldown room broadcast, fans have massively praised the decision as it gives them a behind the scenes look into how the drivers act after an intense race.
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Unfortunately for broadcasters like Sky Sports, this sometimes means catching drivers when they forget that they are even on camera, leading to some awkward, yet hilarious, moments.
And the cooldown room on Sunday was no different as just moments after the broadcast of the cooldown room started airing, Sky Sports commentator Croft had to apologise for the drivers' bad language.
In fact, the three drivers were so foul-mouthed that Sky had to cut the audio feed from the cooldown room before eventually moving the broadcast away from the feed completely.
"I apologise for Max Verstappen's language there. And Charles Leclerc's. ... (sound gets cut) ... Let's leave it there, shall we?" Croft said.
Later adding: "Apologies for some of the colourful language you may have heard from the cooldown room."
The result means Verstappen is now just eight points behind third-place Lewis Hamilton in the Drivers' standings, and only 17 behind George Russel in second.
“I think the last few races have been really positive for us and it’s just great to see,” he said. “And we have a lot of motivation in the team to try and deliver even more results," Verstappen told media post-race.
“So yeah, it’s a really good group of people. I really enjoy working with them and hopefully we can have a bit more fun until the end of the year.”
Can Kimi Antonelli win the F1 Drivers' Championship at the United States GP?
With Antontelli finishing third in Singapore he took home another 15 points in his quest to earn his first Drivers' Championship title.
And with Mercedes teammate George Russell finishing the race in P9, having started the race in P19 after being penalised for use of additional power unit elements, the Italian therefore extended his lead to 102 points.
Next up, the F1 gird will arrive at the popular Circuit of The Americas in Texas for the United States Grand Prix from Thursday, October 22, until Sunday, October 25.
Heading into the race fans will be asking hos Antonelli can seal the title in Texas, with six drivers still in mathematical contention due to there being 150 points left available.
Put simply, Antonelli must win the race in Austin if he is to become champion on October 25, but that's not all that needs to happen for the title to be decided.
Should the Italian win, then he needs Russel to finish 10th or the title race will continue into the following round in Mexico.
Topics: Formula 1, Max Verstappen, Sky Sports, Kimi Antonelli
Ben McCrum