{"id":319330,"date":"2025-11-30T21:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T21:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/319330\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T21:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T21:49:08","slug":"red-bull-finger-point-at-kimi-antonelli-fuels-conspiracy-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/319330\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bull finger point at Kimi Antonelli fuels &#8216;conspiracy&#8217; theory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Max Verstappen\u2019s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase appeared to suggest that Kimi Antonelli \u201clet\u201d Lando Norris through in the closing stages of the Qatar Grand Prix.<\/p>\n<p>Red Bull\u2019s four-time world champion <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/f1\/racer\/852\/max-verstappen\" data-entity-type=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Verstappen<\/a> took advantage of a McLaren strategy blunder to claim a surprise victory in Qatar and set up a three-way championship showdown heading into the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix next weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Verstappen has cut championship leader <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/f1\/racer\/912058\/lando-norris\" data-entity-type=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lando Norris<\/a>\u2019s advantage down to 12 points heading into the finale after the McLaren driver could only finish fourth.<\/p>\n<p>However, Verstappen was looking at going into the final round with only a 10-point deficit until a late error from Mercedes\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/f1\/racer\/1043641\/andrea-kimi-antonelli\" data-entity-type=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Antonelli <\/a>allowed Norris to snatch fourth place and two extra points.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot sure what happened to Antonelli Max, looks like he just pulled over and let Norris through,\u201d Lambiase informed Verstappen in a team radio exchange that was broadcast on the live feed during the closing stages of Sunday\u2019s race.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cConspiracy theory there from GP, obviously engine providers are Mercedes for McLaren,\u201d Sky Sports F1 presenter Simon Lazenby said.<\/p>\n<p>Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko went even further and accused Antonelli of deliberately letting Norris past.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He let him pass,&#8221; Marko told Sky DE. \u201cIt was too flashy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Antonelli explains costly \u2018mistake\u2019    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/xpb_1389199_hires.jpg\"   type=\"image\/jpeg\" alt=\"Lando Norris\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.5\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Lando Norris<\/p>\n<p>Antonelli put the error down to him simply taking too much speed into Turn 9 in his duel bid to keep Norris behind while pursuing Carlos Sainz\u2019s Williams in third place.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>The 19-year-old Italian would have leapfrogged Ferrari\u2019s Lewis Hamilton, who he replaced at Mercedes, in the drivers\u2019 championship had he gone on to finish fourth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was pretty frustrating to end up with a P5,\u201d Antonelli told Sky Sports F1.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the end with the hard I was pushing quite a lot to get close to him [Carlos Sainz]. I was very close to DRS but then into Turn 9 I went a bit quicker and just had a massive moment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a bit unexpected. I just lost the rear and went off track. Just need to look at why the mistake arrived and what I did different. I went a bit quicker but it was not massively different but just lost the rear.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a shame to lose the place because it would have been two more points but now we focus on to Abu Dhabi.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our F1 Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen\u2019s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase appeared to suggest that Kimi Antonelli \u201clet\u201d Lando Norris through in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[12295,64,63,817,806,805,803,804,946,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-319330","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-motor","13":"tag-motor-sports","14":"tag-motosport","15":"tag-motosports","16":"tag-red-bull-racing","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}