Andrea Kimi Antonelli said he was concerned for his mechanics when he collided with Max Verstappen in the pits during the sprint race.
However Antonelli said it was clear Verstappen was not to blame for the collision. “What’s very important is [there’s] nothing to blame on Max because he just got released,” Antonelli told the official F1 channel. “So he respected the order.”
The Red Bull driver was penalised 10 seconds after hitting Antonelli’s car as he left his pit box. The stewards ruled Red Bull released Verstappen unsafely.
Antonelli said he saw Verstappen’s car moving into the fast lane as he approached his pit box. “What I did is, as soon as I saw him coming out I just tried to avoid the crash because definitely it could have been a really bad accident for the mechanics. So I’m happy nothing went wrong there.”
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was extremely unimpressed with what he saw. “If it was the main race that would be seriously annoying,” he told Sky.
“But I’m surprised about the total lack of judgement there because it wasn’t even close to releasing [him] without any security concerns. So somebody panicked there.”
His opposite number at Red Bull, Christian Horner, said the incident was caused by “human error.”
Verstappen, who expressed his frustration on his radio after the collision, said afterwards: “I don’t even need to really explain it, it’s super clear. It’s not what you want to see.”
Red Bull previously had problems with their pit lane exit lights during the Bahrain Grand Prix. Verstappen and team mate Yuki Tsunoda were slow to leave their pit boxes due to problems with the team’s traffic lights.
This article will be updated.
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