Kimi Antonelli handed penalty for British Grand Prix after taking out Max Verstappen

Kimi Antonelli has been handed a three-place grid penalty after wiping Max Verstappen out at the F1 Austrian Grand Prix.

Antonelli misjudged his braking zone into Turn 3 on the opening lap of the race.

The Italian was caught out by a couple of cars ahead of him which braked early, meaning Antonelli was forced to take evasive action.

Antonelli ran into Verstappen at Turn 3, putting both drivers out of the race on the opening lap.

“I'm out. I got hit like crazy. Idiots,” Verstappen reacted initially over team radio.

The pair were seen talking, with Antonelli apologising to Verstappen shortly after the incident.

The stewards have decided to give Antonelli a three-place grid penalty, which he will serve at Silverstone.

The stewards’ explanation

The stewards decided for a more “lenient approach” in terms of a grid penalty - only three places - as Kimi Antonelli was taking evasive action rather than a “blatant” attempt to try and overtake.

They explained: “The driver of Car 12 locked up the rear brakes into Turn 3 and collided with Car 1. In the hearing the driver admitted that he made a mistake as he locked up the rear wheels while using his regular braking point, but also pointed out that he needed to avoid a collision with Car 30 in front of him and released the brakes for a short period of time to do so.

“Taking evasive action led to the car having less grip on the dirty inside line and therefore he was not able to decelerate the car in a way to avoid the collision with Car 1.

“The stewards determine that, although the incident happened in Lap 1, no other cars influenced the incident and the driver of Car 12 is fully at fault. Therefore the more lenient approach to judging Lap 1 incidents has not been applied in this case.

“However, they also acknowledge that the incident was not a blatant attempt to dive into the corner but rather a result of the evasive action after locking up. As the driver was not able to continue the race a grid drop for the next race is applied.”