Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has slammed claims from Red Bull that Kimi Antonelli intentionally allowed Lando Norris to pass on the final lap of the Qatar Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen claimed a dramatic win on Monday morning, a victory that catapulted him back into title contention after a strategic decision from McLaren backfired.
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On lap seven a safety car was deployed and Verstappen was called immediately into the pits while McLaren hesitated and chose to stay out without pitting – the only team to do so in a race where two stops were mandatory.
Piastri finished the race second to extend his winless drought, while championship leader Lando Norris had to pass Antonelli on the final lap to save fourth.
After the race Verstappen’s engineer Gianpiero Lambiase claimed that Antonelli appeared to “pull over and let Norris through” — the suggestion being that Mercedes would prefer a McLaren driver to win than its bitter rival.
This was later backed up by Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko who claimed it was an intentional tactic from their rival and that Antonelli did it twice.
“He let him pass,” Marko told Sky DE, “it was too flashy.”
That claim was met with a fierce rebuke from Wolff.
“Bless him,” Wolff said.
“Helmut, this is total, utter nonsense. That blows my mind, even to hear that.
“We’re fighting for P2 in the championship, which is important for us. Kimi is fighting for a potential P3. How brainless can you be to even say something like this?
“It annoys me, because I’m annoyed with the race itself, how it went. I’m annoyed with the mistake at the end. I’m annoyed with other mistakes and then hearing such nonsense blows my mind.
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Wolff said he spoke to :ambiase to discuss his inflammatory comments.
“The other thing is that beyond losing the points for the Constructors’ Championship, I spoke to (Lambiase), saw him, and obviously he’s emotional in that moment, because they needed a P3, I guess, to win the championship. Now, they need more.”
“I said to him, Kimi just went off. He had a bit of a moment in the previous corner, and then entry speed into that left-hander, put the gas down and at that moment, which can happen, that lost the position.
“So with GP, everything is clear. Cleared the air. He said he didn’t see the situation. Why would we do this?”
“Why would we even think about interfering in a Drivers’ Championship? I mean, you really need to check yourself, whether you see ghosts.”
Antonelli was asked about the incident and said a mistake cost him a place on the podium.
“With the hard [tyre] I was pushing quite a lot, and eventually I was getting to DRS [behind Sainz],” Antonelli said after the race,
“But in [Turn 9] I had a massive moment and almost crashed, so then I went off track and lost the place to Lando, which was very annoying.
“I went in a bit quicker than the lap before – obviously with dirty air the car is more unpredictable because you have less downforce, and the tyres overheat more, but I went in a bit quicker and just lost the rear all of a sudden.”
Verstappen, meanwhile, couldn’t resist twisting the knife on McLaren.
“I didn’t expect to win, for sure,” explained the 28-year-old Dutchman.
“On pure pace, we are not at the same level as them (McLaren) but we made the right call and it gave us almost a free pit stop and it made the race for me.
“It meant two long stints but we managed the tyres well and they caught up, but not too much. And that decision won me the race today!”
Asked if he believed it was another one of the errors that he had previously said were helping him to stay in the championship fight, Verstappen said: “Another one?… Yes.”
“They missed the whole opportunity. On pace, they are faster, but today showed that anything is possible and, with a positive mindset, we will go to Abu Dhabi and do our best and try to win.”
Without that strategy blunder Piastri seemed on course to complete a clean sweep for the weekend after dominating every session and winning Saturday’s sprint race.
Verstappen won ahead of Piastri with Williams’ Carlos Sainz finishing third and Norris fourth.
As a result, Norris heads to the season-ending showdown in the desert at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on 408 points ahead of Verstappen On 396 and Piastri on 392.
Norris can clinch the title by claiming his 18th podium finish of the season while Verstappen needs to win with the Britonoff the podium if he is to snatch it from his grasp.
“It’s all possible now, isn’t it?” he said. “We’ll see. I don’t worry about it too much.”
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