Kimi Antonelli says he and Mercedes team-mate George Russell “have been each fortunate to not crash” in an incident through the dash race on the Canadian Grand Prix.
The Italian mentioned he was “very irritated” by an incident at Flip One on lap six, through which he tried to overhaul Russell across the outdoors and ended up off the monitor.
“I used to be fairly nicely alongside and there was positively contact so I have to recheck that,” mentioned Antonelli.
Russell mentioned: “It was tense, it was shut, however from my aspect it was simply shut, onerous racing. I do not suppose I did something flawed.
“There was nothing untoward with the driving and it wasn’t even investigated. So that claims sufficient.”
Antonelli complained about Russell’s driving over the staff radio however was instructed by Mercedes staff principal Toto Wolff to cease “moaning”.
Wolff added later: “It was nice cinema. Robust combating, not solely between our two but in addition with Lando [Norris]. I completely loved watching it.
“You may see how shortly it goes, you create a niche with two vehicles and you then begin to battle a bit and you’ll lose a race. If that goes longer and unfortunate for us and it’s the grand prix, then Norris might nicely win.
“I actually take pleasure in these moments as a result of it permits us to be taught and say: ‘OK, what are we doing with this example, how are we dealing with that sooner or later?’ Since you do not wish to lose a race, you do not wish to crash into one another and generally it wants just a little second to remind ourselves what our goals are.
“This isn’t notably towards one or the opposite. There’s a framework we wish to set up and I would somewhat have it in a dash race, the place it isn’t about numerous factors, than the primary race.”
