George Russell and Kimi Antonelli have reacted to their tough sprint race battle. Image: XPB Images
The pair fought aggressively for the lead in Montreal, with Antonelli twice forced onto the grass while attempting moves on Russell before eventually dropping behind Lando Norris and finishing third.
Antonelli was furious over team radio during the exchange, labelling Russell’s defending “very naughty” before demanding a penalty from race control.
“That should be a penalty, I was alongside the mirror,” Antonelli protested over the radio, before Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff stepped in to calm the Italian teenager down.
Despite the tension during the race, Russell played down the incident afterwards, insisting the pair had simply been racing hard while battling for the championship.
“I didn’t really make a lot of it to be honest,” Russell told Sky Sports.
“It’s always a challenging corner to overtake on the outside of.
“It’s always one of those that when you’ve got one corner leading into the next, it’s very easy for the outside driver to break much later than you would do ordinarily. But the inside driver is only going one direction.
“I was just taking my normal line into Turn 2. And that’s all I say really.”
The flashpoint came on Lap 6 after Russell led Antonelli away from the front row at the start of the sprint.
Antonelli first attempted to pass around the outside into Turn 1 after getting a run through the final chicane, but was squeezed onto the grass as Russell retained the lead.
Moments later the Italian launched another attack into the Turn 8 chicane, diving down the inside before locking up and once again being forced across the grass.
The battle ultimately cost Antonelli momentum, allowing Norris to sweep past into second place shortly afterwards.
Russell acknowledged Mercedes would discuss the clash internally, but stressed there had been no malicious intent from either side.
“It’s always been discussed in the years gone by,” he said.
“You race each other hard, but fair. From my side there’s never ill intentions towards anything.
“But on the same note, I’m not just going to wave somebody by. We’re both fighting for our championship, but as always, the team first.
“We’ll both talk about it after for sure. But for me I’ve got the peace of mind that it wasn’t investigated and if the FIA think it was fine, then that’s enough.”
Russell also admitted close moments between the pair were becoming increasingly inevitable given Mercedes’ pace advantage in recent rounds.
“It is inevitable that if you got two cars, qualifying one-two most weeks, you’re going to have some close racing,” he said.
“But we do respect one another. It is in the intention to ever collde, and the fact that we’re both here standing and we finished one-tree, could have been one-two, I don’t think it’s a big deal.”
Antonelli cut a frustrated figure after climbing from his car, conceding the clash had likely cost him a chance at victory.
“Yeah for sure the win. It cost,” Antonelli told Sky Sports.
“I think the pace was very strong. But of course it’s very hard to say.
“But I feel like overall it was a hard battle.
“It felt a bit unfair in the moment I am not going to lie, but I think also emotion runs very high and it’s difficult for us to stay very cool because when you go on track, I always try to give my best and I wasn’t trying to settle for second.
“So yeah, it was a hard battle but now for sure we’ll clarify with the team and then we’ll focus on the qualifying.”
Wolff, meanwhile, described the fight as “great cinema”, although admitted Mercedes would use the incident as an opportunity to reinforce expectations between its drivers moving forward.
“Yeah was great cinema, no?” Wolff told Sky Sports.
“Tough fighting not only between our two, but also with Lando and further back. I enjoyed watching it.”
However, Wolff made clear Mercedes wanted to avoid overblowing the clash despite the immediate attention surrounding the incident.
“A moment to remind ourselves what our objectives are,” he said.
“This is not particularly against one or the other, but there’s a framework that we want to establish, and I’d rather have it in a sprint race where it’s not about a lot of points than in the main race.”
Wolff also defended Antonelli’s emotional reaction over team radio, pointing to the intensity of the battle and the 19-year-old’s inexperience.
“We don’t want to start with race five and then have headlines like Star Wars or this is escalating because it’s not,” he said.
“It’s in the emotion and he’s a young driver. And I think George would have probably would have done the same.
“So we just need to see how we handle it.”
Russell ultimately held on to win the sprint by 1.2 seconds from Norris, with Antonelli completing the podium a further 0.6s behind after briefly attacking the McLaren again on the final lap.
The result cut Antonelli’s championship lead over Russell to 18 points heading into qualifying later on Saturday at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Russell triumphs as Mercedes teammates clash in Canada sprint
