Kimi Antonelli handed F1 stewards punishment at Barcelona GP | F1 | Sport
Kimi Antonelli has been reprimanded by the stewards after an investigation into erratic driving at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. It related to the events of final practice at Montmelo on Saturday morning, during which the Mercedes teenager lost his cool after being hampered by traffic on track on several occasions.
One such incident saw him slam Lance Stroll over the radio. “Oh my god, Stroll, as always,” complained the Italian teenager after coming across the slow-moving Aston Martin on track. He soon followed that up by telling his race engineer Peter Bonnington that he was returning to the pits, where he furiously asked: “Why do I always get traffic? I don’t understand. Everyone is always in the way. I had four cars into turn one in my first lap, four cars.”
But Antonelli‘s own driving standards caught the attention of the stewards, who confirmed that Antonelli had been summoned to a hearing ahead of qualifying. Stroll was also told to attend the hearing over an alleged incident took place at 1.24pm local time, when there was six minutes left in FP3 which was around the time of Antonelli’s radio outburst.
And the stewards have now confirmed that Antonelli has been found guilty of erratic driving. He has been given an official reprimand, his first of the season, but has copped no further sporting penalty beyond that so heads into qualifying with no grid drop hanging over his head.
The stewards said: “Car 12 [Antonelli] was impacted by Car 18 [Stroll] when approaching turn one. After passing Car 18 the driver of Car 12 applied the brakes in front of Car 18 and prevented the latter from passing. This is deemed driving in an erratic manner. The driver admitted during the hearing that he acted out of frustration and apologised for his action.”
Stroll too has already been punished by the stewards on Saturday. He was caught speeding in the pit lane at 5.9kph over the 80kph limit, resulting in a €600 fine for his Aston Martin team.
The incident involving Antonelli and Stroll was not the only one that the stewards are looking into ahead of qualifying. Charles Leclerc was also been summoned to explain himself after being accused of impeding the Audi of Nico Hulkenberg during final practice. Impeding in a practice session is more likely to result in a fine than a sporting sanction, though if it happens again in qualifying then grid penalties could be on the cards, so the Ferrari driver will have to make sure to keep things clean.
George Russell finished final practice at the top of the timesheets, having also gone quickest in FP1 and missed out on top spot in FP2 by just 0.009 seconds on Friday. He and Mercedes are undoubtedly the favourites for pole position, with Antonelli off the pace and playing catch-up having missed the first hour of track time after Mercedes handed his car over to reserve Frederik Vesti to complete one of their mandated rookie sessions for the season.
But McLaren in particular look likely to be a threat, as Lando Norris was the one who pipped Russell to top spot in the FP2 classification while Oscar Piastri was second behind the Mercedes man in the final hour of practice. Leclerc was not far behind the Aussie, though Lewis Hamilton in the other Ferrari looks to have work to do to find lap time having been left seven-tenths adrift.
