Charles Leclerc was punted into the barrier and out of the Dutch Grand Prix when Kimi Antonelli attempted an overly-ambitious overtaken on the Ferrari at Zandvoort
The stewards have confirmed the punishment handed to Kimi Antonelli after he caused Charles Leclerc to crash out of the Dutch Grand Prix. The teenager tried to overtake the Ferrari with an ambitious move up the inside but misjudged it and ended up hitting the rear-left wheel of Leclerc’s car.
That contact sent the Ferrari into a spin before it hit the barrier so hard the entire nose section of the car was ripped away. The tyre on that rear-left wheel was also pulled from the car and Leclerc’s race was over, having been nothing more than a passenger unable to prevent what happened.
It was clear immediately that it had been Antonelli’s fault. And it did not take the stewards long to hand down a 10-second time penalty to the Mercedes driver for causing the collision.
That punishment was announced during the race but, afterwards, it was confirmed that Antonelli has also had two penalty points added to his racing licence. He now has four for the current 12-month period, meaning he is in no immediate danger of racking up the 12 he would need to incur a race ban.
« Car 12 [Antonelli] was attempting an overtake on the inside of Car 16 [Leclerc] at turn three and understeered into the side of Car 16. This resulted in significant damage to Car 16 and its retirement, » the stewards wrote in the official decision document.
« It is clear that Car 12 was wholly and predominantly to blame for the collision. We accordingly imposed a 10-second time penalty on Car 12. »
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Antonelli also picked up a further five-second penalty when caught speeding in the pit lane during the race. He crossed the finish line sixth on the road, but was dropped to 16th in the final classification when those penalties were applied, meaning another pointless result for the rookie who has struggled since the start of the European season.
After the crash, Leclerc reported that he was okay over the radio before clambering out of his Ferrari and making his way to the top of a sand dune, where he sat down and took in the rest of the race from the fans’ perspective.
The Monegasque eventually made his was back to the pit lane to debrief with his Ferrari engineers and to fulfil his media duties. And, when doing so, he made a point of not being too harsh on Antonelli, clearly taking into account the young Italian’s rookie status and difficult run of results.
Leclerc said: « Kimi’s incident is the way it is. I think mistakes happen on a track like this, you’ve got to be incisive and aggressive to make a pass, and that’s what I’ve done as well against George. That’s what Kimi tried to do on myself, but I think he probably misjudged it and kind of ruined my race. It’s a shame, but it’s the way it is. »
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