Kimi Antonelli raged at title rival George Russell after he claimed his Mercedes team-mate pushed him off the track with a “naughty” move in the Canadian Grand Prix sprint.
The Italian demanded a penalty for Russell and had to be told to “stop the radio moaning” by team principal Toto Wolff as the title battle erupted in Montreal.
Russell started from pole and led from his team-mate on lap six when the Italian, who had won the previous three races to pile the pressure on the British driver, made his move at turn one.
Antonelli moved around the outside and the pair made contact as he was forced across the grass and Russell retained the lead.
“That was very naughty. Not fair, he pushed me off,” Antonelli raged. Race engineer Peter Bonnington tried to calm him down but he continued: “That should be a penalty, I was alongside the mirror.”
Wolff stepped in, ordering his young driver to “concentrate on the racing please and not the radio moaning”.
Amid Antonelli’s rage, later in the lap he locked up as he charged inside Russell at turn eight, bumping across the grass as Lando Norris moved into second.
That is how it finished, despite a late lunge from Antonelli on Norris on the final lap as he again cut across the grass.
As Russell celebrated a win which shaves Antonelli’s lead by two points to 18, the latter was again expressing his anger on the radio, saying: “If we need to race like this, that’s good to know.”
Wolff responded: “Kimi now is not the time to talk about this. We talk about this internally and not on the radio, OK.”
A cursory handshake came between the pair at the end and Antonelli had not changed his view.
“I tried to make my move and I need to review on that because I was quite well alongside side and, yeah, got pushed off but it is what it is,” he said.
“There was definitely contact. Just need to recheck it and we will talk about it later.”
As the pair sat side-by-side on the press conference sofa, Russell issued a differing view on the clash.
“I was going to close the line because that is my right to do so,” he said.
“A good, hard battle. Came out unscathed. Glad we are both sat here now, could have been something different and that is how racing should be.
“From my side I didn’t think I did anything wrong and it was not investigated. I think that says enough.”
Russell suggested that you never get overtaken around the outside of turn one in Montreal so believed he was safe.
Antonelli retorted: “I think if you are well alongside you can overtake pretty much anywhere. I agree that George was defending his position, was hard racing and we are both lucky not to crash.”
The 19-year-old again suggested what happened was not his understanding of how Mercedes want their drivers to race, adding: “We do meetings before races and that’s what we say in the room. Then we race to win.
“Probably I understood the significance of that meeting a bit differently.”
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri came home fourth, ahead of Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, with Max Verstappen seventh for Red Bull.
Mercedes boss Wolff spoke to Sky Sports after the race and played down the angry reaction from Antonelli.
“We don’t want to start race five with headlines like ‘Star Wars’ or ‘this is escalating’ as it’s not,” he said. “It’s emotion and he is a young driver.
“George (Russell) would probably have done the same so we will see how we handle it.”
The battle between the Mercedes duo will resume with qualifying at 1600 local time (2100 BST).
.png?trim=0,0,0,0&width=1200&height=800&crop=1200:800 "The world’s tallest thermometer is for sale. Here’s how much it costs – UK Times")
