{"id":910167,"date":"2026-09-26T08:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T08:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/910167\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T08:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T08:52:11","slug":"max-verstappen-backs-kimi-antonelli-after-baku-f1-qualifying-crash-people-forget-how-young-he-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/910167\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen backs Kimi Antonelli after Baku F1 qualifying crash: \u201cPeople forget how young he is\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a very strong European leg of the Formula 1 season \u2013 which was actually an Achilles\u2019 heel last year \u2013 Kimi Antonelli<\/a> made a rare mistake during qualifying in Baku.<\/p>\n

The championship leader hit the inside wall at Turn 1 during his second Q1 push lap, bringing his qualifying session to an early end and leaving him to start Saturday\u2019s Azerbaijan Grand Prix from 16th on the grid.<\/p>\n

Antonelli was particularly angry with himself afterwards and said he had been surprised by the changing track conditions, especially by how much front-end he had when turning in on that run.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, there appears to be no reason to panic just yet. With an 81-point lead over his closest championship rival, the margin is comfortable and, moreover, Mercedes<\/a> is so quick in Baku that the young Italian should still be able to secure a more than solid points finish.<\/p>\n

Verstappen shares that view and stresses that moments like the one on Friday are all part of the learning process for a young driver, something he believes fans should not forget.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething like that can happen. Obviously this sucks for him, but he is still very young,\u201d Verstappen said when asked about Antonelli\u2019s crash by Motorsport.com.<\/p>\n

\"Andrea <\/p>\n

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes<\/p>\n

Photo by: Michael Potts \/ LAT images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe people forget that sometimes, also in the way they talk about him this season. But this is a learning moment and it\u2019s simply part of the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the margin over\u00a0George Russell<\/a> is still substantial, Verstappen does say that such mistakes should not happen too often, not least to avoid giving his Mercedes team-mate renewed hope in the title fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t afford to do it too often, of course, but with his speed I think it will all be fine. But it\u2019s obviously still frustrating. He will be the most frustrated about it himself, but Kimi still has every opportunity to score very good points on Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verstappen is not the only one expecting Antonelli to storm through the field, with Russell also anticipating a comeback drive. When the Briton was asked on Friday about a potential comeback drive from Antonelli, Russell jokingly referred to Antonelli\u2019s sensational victory at Monza from 19th on the grid: \u201cYou can\u2019t discount Kimi. He started 19th in Monza and now he\u2019s in 16th, so he should be leading by a few laps earlier this time!\u201d<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a very strong European leg of the Formula 1 season \u2013 which was actually an Achilles\u2019 heel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":910168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[3032,77894,77895,49,48,578,576,577,1885,314289,1881,2190,82],"class_list":["post-910167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","tag-azerbaijan-gp","tag-baku-city-circuit","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-max-verstappen","tag-max-verstappen-backs-kimi-antonelli-after-baku-f1-qualifying-crash-u201cpeople-forget-how-young-he-isu201d","tag-mercedes","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=910167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/910168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}