Leclerc-Antonelli, what sparks: “Kimi terrible, he moves when braking. We’ll crash”

Intense challenge The Miami Sprint race provided some great duels and fun, but also plenty of sparks, on and off the track. In particular, the challenge with a very ‘tricolor’ flavor between Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli stood out. The Ferrari driver overtook the young driver from Bologna at the start and then successfully defended his position in the first phase of the Sprint, resisting some decidedly aggressive overtaking attempts by the world championship leader. Leclerc’s poisonous radio team On a couple of occasions Leclerc and Antonelli came close to contact and the Monegasque did not at all like the Mercedes driver’s way of conducting the battle, judging it to be unfair. At a certain point the red #16 opened up via radio with his engineer Bryan Bozzi to complain about Antonelli’s behaviour: “Kimi is… really bad at wheel-to-wheel duels. He moved when braking, it’s incredible. We’ll end up colliding”, Leclerc’s piqued comment. The duel then cooled down in the second half of the Sprint, when Leclerc gained a margin of safety over his rival, managing to distance himself and instead chasing – which later proved unsuccessful – Oscar Piastri’s McLaren. It must be said that today is not the first duel, even ‘verbal’, between Leclerc and Antonelli. At Interlagos last year Leclerc in post-race interviews blamed Antonelli for causing an accident in turn 1 which caused the Monegasque to retire; in that case, however, the race direction penalized Piastri, who was also involved in the three-way collision.

Automobile Magazine – F1 English News
2026-05-03 02:49:00