Kimi Antonelli speaks out after online abuse over Lando Norris pass in Qatar GP

Kimi Antonelli has admitted it wasn’t “easy” for him to deal with the online abuse he received following the Qatar Grand Prix.

Antonelli was forced to black out his social media channels after receiving death threats.

The Italian made a mistake on the penultimate lap of Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix, allowing Lando Norris to move into fourth.

The error led to an unfair comment from Max Verstappen’s race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase.

Lambiase said to Verstappen: “Not sure what happened to Antonelli Max, looks like he just pulled over and let Norris through.”

Red Bull’s Helmut Marko also suggested Antonelli had let Norris by deliberately, aiding the McLaren driver’s title hopes over Verstappen.

On Monday, Red Bull issued a statement apologising to Antonelli: “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 Antonelli receiving online abuse.”

Antonelli responds to the abuse

Antonelli has received widespread support across the F1 paddock.

Former Prema F2 teammate and current Haas driver Ollie Bearman described the online trolls as “scum of the earth.”

Speaking on Thursday in Abu Dhabi, Antonelli stressed he would never let a competitor through on purpose.

“It was not easy to get all those kind of comments, after the race, especially for something that I would never do such as waving past a competitor,” Antonelli said.

“I was fighting for P3. At the end of the day, I was pushing hard and I was trying to get into the DRS of Sainz. After so many laps in dirty air I’m pushing so hard, the mistake arrived, because I obviously every lap I was pushing a bit more and more to get closer and I arrived to the point where the tyre gave up. 

“At that moment I did a mistake and Lando passed me and, you know, then after the race to receive those kind of comments, definitely it hurt.”

Antonelli also revealed he spoke to Lambiase and Verstappen in person to clarify the incident.

“It was nice to see the Red Bull statement, also GP came to talk to me as well and we clarified, I also clarified with Max and that was nice,” he added.

“But apart from that, after that I got a lot of support which was nice and definitely also it helped to kind of forget what happened and focus on onto this weekend.”