"Championship gone for good": Fans react as Max Verstappen is punted out of the F1 Austrian GP by Kimi Antonelli

Red Bull star Max Verstappen was forced to retire from the 2025 Austrian GP after F1 rookie Kimi Antonelli crashed into the rear of the Dutchman on the first lap of the race. Fans took to social media to react to the four-time champion’s DNF and commented on his championship chances.

Verstappen has usually done well around the Red Bull Ring, winning five races at the circuit in Austria in the past. However, the qualifying day was a woeful one for the Dutch driver as he only managed P7 in Q3. Verstappen wasn't able to put in a final lap in Q3 after a Pierre Gasly spin brought out the yellow flag.

The race start was delayed by 10 minutes as Carlos Sainz was stuck on the grid. Once the race got going, Max Verstappen had a great first couple of corners, making up one position and fighting George Russell and Lewis Hamilton for P4 going into Turn 3. However, this was where disaster struck.

Kimi Antonelli, who was all the way back in P9, missed his braking point, locked up the tires, went deep into Turn 3, and crashed with Verstappen, who was taking the outside line behind Russell and Hamilton. The Italian driver smashed into the rear of the Red Bull, ending Max Verstappen's race.

Coming into the Austrian GP, Verstappen was 43 points behind the championship leader, Oscar Piastri. However, while the two McLarens run 1-2, Verstappen will not score any points, further losing out in the championship. Fans commented on how the retirement meant the championship hopes were over for the Dutchman.

“Championship gone for good,” wrote a fan. Another user commented, “Bye Championship.” “Seriously this is getting worse for Max 😞,” mentioned another fan.

Other fans pointed out Kimi Antonelli's rookie mistake of braking too late into the first corner with wild theories.

“My theory is george told kimi to do it,” commented a fan. “Kimi helping Max join Mercedes by triggering the exit clause? 😉" wrote another user. “Antonelli channeling his inner Kvyat there ,” commented a user.

Sebastian Vettel nicknamed former Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat the torpedo after the Russian driver crashed into the German by missing the braking point. Kimi Antonelli did a similar thing by taking out Verstappen at the Austrian GP.

Max Verstappen details his frustration with RB21 at the Austrian GP qualifying

The Red Bull Ring has been a happy hunting ground for Max Verstappen. However, during the 2025 qualifying, he struggled with the balance of the car and was over half a second slower than the championship-leading McLarens.

Speaking about the issues with the car after the race, Verstappen said:

“Everything fell apart a bit. Every corner was a bit of a struggle to be honest. No balance, no front, no rear in different places of the corner, so that made it very difficult to get in a rhythm and a bit of a benchmark. “It seems like as soon as it got warmer, it made our struggles even worse. That doesn’t look great, but we’ll see tomorrow. Maybe [there will be] some surprises in the race,” he added.

Max Verstappen's retirement at the Austrian GP will only lead to the McLaren driver extending their advantage in the championship.

Edited by Hitesh Nigam