Max Verstappen suffered his first retirement of the Formula 1 season on Sunday after a collision with Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli on the opening lap of Red Bull’s home Austrian Grand Prix.
The four-times world champion had started seventh on the grid, with Italian rookie Antonelli ninth, at a circuit where he has won a record five times.
Action from the opening lap of the race – moments before Max Verstappen (far left) crashed out.Credit: Getty Images
Antonelli, who clearly caused the turn three collision, also retired and the safety car was deployed.
“I’m out – I got hit like crazy,” Verstappen, third in the championship going into the race, said over the team radio.
“Sorry about that – I locked the rear,” Antonelli told his team.
The retirement ended a run of 31 grands prix in the points for the Dutch driver, whose fans throng in their thousands to the Red Bull Ring.
The race had started later than scheduled after Carlos Sainz’s Williams was stuck on the grid as cars moved away for the formation lap.
Worse was to come for Sainz, whose rear brakes caught fire when he pulled into the pit lane, forcing Williams mechanics and track marshals to use fire extinguishers. That ended Sainz’s race before it even began. He had been due to start 19th.
It was the second time Sainz’s car had caught fire at the Spielberg track. Sainz – then driving for Ferrari – was forced to retire on the 56th lap of the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix after his car caught fire. The driver escaped unscathed on both occasions.
