Kimi Antonelli was handed a three-place grid penalty for next weekend's British Grand Prix for causing a collision with Max Verstappen in Austria.
Antonelli, the 18-year-old Mercedes rookie, plunged into the side of Verstappen's Red Bull after locking up his brakes into the third corner of the opening lap Sunday. Both cars sustained too much damage for the drivers to continue in the race, dealing a major blow to Verstappen's title hopes.
Antonelli apologized to Verstappen after the Austrian GP and the Dutchman branded the crash "unlucky," but race stewards took a dim view of the incident and gave the Italian a grid drop for next week's race at Silverstone. Antonelli was also handed two penalty points, the first of his career.
The stewards said Antonelli "made a mistake" as he locked up his rear wheels but was also trying to avoid a collision with Liam Lawson's car ahead, so he "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," their judgement added.
"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."
On team radio, Verstappen said "f---ing idiots" after the crash but then accepted Antonelli's apology later.
"I didn't necessarily brake too late," Antonelli explained. "But when I did I broke hard, and in that moment I locked the rears and I just couldn't turn the car. It was too late because I was arriving too quick. The crash was inevitable. I just feel super sorry to the team, and to Max of course."
Verstappen is 61 points behind Oscar Piastri in the title race after the Australian finished second behind Lando Norris at the Red Bull Ring.