Red Bull 'sincerely regret' role in Kimi Antonelli abuse online

Red Bull has released a statement expressing their 'sincere regret' over online threats and abuse young F1 driver Kimi Antonelli received after Sunday's Qatar Grand Prix.

Two prominent figures at the team – Max Verstappen's race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase and advisor Helmut Marko – had suggested that Antonelli moved aside to let Lando Norris past in the late stages of the race, damaging Verstappen's title bid.

Replays showed fairly quickly that Norris had, in fact, taken advantage of a massive snap of oversteer from Antonelli which nearly caused him to lose control of his car completely.

While Lambiase – who spoke on the radio to Verstappen before seeing the incident for himself – happily accepted the real explanation when talking to Toto Wolff after the race, Marko initially doubled down on his insistence that Antonelli had opened the door for Norris on multiple occasions. The Austrian apologised and backed down on Monday.

Red Bull: Antonelli clearly didn't allow Norris through on purpose

A Red Bull statement released on Monday morning read: "Comments made before the end of and immediately after the Qatar GP suggesting that Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli had deliberately allowed Lando Norris to overtake him are clearly incorrect.

"Replay footage shows Antonelli momentarily losing control of his car, thus allowing Norris to pass him.

"We sincerely regret that this has led to Kimi receiving online abuse."

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