Leclerc claims F1 Dutch GP collision was “too much” from Antonelli

Charles Leclerc has put all the blame on Andrea Kimi Antonelli for their collision during the latter half of the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix. 

The Ferrari driver retired on lap 53 after being tagged at Turn 3 by Antonelli, who was on the inside and clipped the rear-left of Leclerc’s SF-25, which subsequently spun into the barrier.

It came after Mercedes pitted Antonelli for soft tyres on lap 52 due to the 19-year-old rookie struggling to overtake Leclerc for fifth on his older hard rubber.

Ferrari immediately pitted Leclerc in response to the Mercedes stop and the eight-time grand prix winner rejoined just ahead of Antonelli before their almost instantaneous collision. 

“It’s a mistake from Kimi,” said Leclerc, with Antonelli also finishing outside of the points after receiving a 10-second penalty for the incident, plus an extra five-seconds for speeding in the pitlane.

“You’ve got to be very aggressive on a track like this to overtake…maybe it was a bit too much. He went on to touch my rear left and that was the end of my race. So it’s disappointing.”

Leclerc claimed it wasn’t a “rookie mistake”, but one that “can happen the first year or the fifth year”, meaning he holds little ill-feeling towards Antonelli.

He therefore doesn’t necessarily disagree with Ferrari’s decision to pit him, as Leclerc acknowledged there was a genuine chance of Antonelli eventually overtaking him on fresher and softer rubber.

“The tyres weren’t too bad, however I think the out-lap of Kimi was probably very strong,” added Leclerc.

“So I think the team decided to pit me because they thought that he would probably get past us again.

“At the end, I was frustrated for what had just happened, but I don’t think the strategy is the big talking point today. I think it’s just Kimi’s mistake that threw out every effort we had in the bin.

“Only by finishing the race we would have known whether it was a good choice or not. We didn’t because of the crash with Kimi, so it’s a bit difficult to know.”

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

It continued a scrappy weekend for Antonelli after his Q2 exit, which he thinks was because of his early retirement in FP1 where he beached his Mercedes in the Turn 9 gravel. 

Antonelli has had a tough rookie year so far despite his sprint pole in Miami and Canada podium, as Sunday’s incident adds to his crashes in Monaco and Austria.

But Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is taking a more relaxed approach to these mistakes from his driver, who replaced Lewis Hamilton at the team, and reckons it was the fine margins that cost Antonelli in the incident.

“Half a metre would have been enough,” Wolff told Sky Sports Germany. “It’s also the case that the fastest line there is probably way up on the banking, so when you see that gap, you dive into it – and then the car understeers uphill. I think he had to try it, but the outcome was unfortunate. A shame, really.”

Additional reporting by Ronald Vording and Markus Luettgens