Kimi Antonelli makes his feelings known after his Max Verstappen DNF-inducing crash at the F1 Austrian GP

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli apologized for his "mistake", which took him and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen out of the race on Lap 1 of the 2025 Austrian GP on Sunday, June 29. The young Italian driver was starting the race from P9 and made a poor start off the line and fell behind the Alpine driver Pierre Gasly on Turn 1.

Heading into Turn 3, the 18-year-old was unable to control in Mercedes W16 and outbraked himself and avoided a melley of cars, although he was unable to slow down the car and hit Verstappen's RB21.

The clash immediately took both drivers out of the race, with Kimi Antonelli destroying his front tires while causing damage to the rear of Max Verstappen's car. Speaking with ViaPlay in his post-race interview, the Mercedes driver apologized for his 'mistake', saying:

"First of all, I feel very sorry to the team and Max, he was a passenger. I immediately apologized towards him after the crash, yeah, it was a mistake, unfortunate. When I braked, I locked the rear, and lost the car."

Antonelli has scored once in the last five races, which was his maiden podium in the sport in Canada.

Kimi Antonelli analyzes his crash with Max Verstappen in Austria

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli stated that he did not brake too late but locked his rear brakes and was unable to stop the car and could not avoid the Max Verstappen clash at Red Bull Ring.

Speaking with Sky Sports, the crash was unavoidable, and believed that the reigning four-time F1 world champion was a "passenger" in the situation, saying:

"I didn’t necessarily brake too late, it’s just that when I braked, I braked hard because I was behind other cars, and in that moment I locked the rears. Then I just couldn’t stop the car. I locked the rear and then lost the car, and then had to avoid Lawson. Then it was too late because I was arriving just too quickly." "Just feel super sorry to the team, and to Max of course, because obviously he was just a passenger. Of course, it’s a big mistake. Now we need to move forward and focus on Silverstone. We’ll see if we get a penalty or not, but it’s going to be important to get back and start doing like I did in Canada," Antonelli added.

Kimi Antonelli is sitting P7 in the driver's standings and has 63 points to his name in the 11 GP races and two Sprints thus far.

Edited by Sumeet Kavthale