Carlos Sainz is happy with the apologies from Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The two encountered each other on the track during the first free practice. The Mercedes driver felt hindered by the Madrilenian, causing him to call Sainz an idiot over the radio. However, a day later Kimi Antonelli immediately apologized: ‘For me, that is a sign that he is a great guy’.
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During the first free practice of the Grand Prix weekend in Belgium, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Carlos Sainz encountered each other on the track. The Williams driver was driving slowly ahead of the young Italian in Stavelot, and the Mercedes driver felt hindered by it. “Sainz, what an idiot!”, was heard over Kimi Antonelli’s radio. “I don’t know what Antonelli was planning with me,” Sainz said meanwhile to his own race engineer. “He rammed the car into me, I don’t know why.”
‘He just apologized’
A day later the two met in the elevator. “On Saturday morning we actually woke up at the same time,” Sainz said after qualifying at Spa. “So we got into the elevator at the same time, I saw him and asked how he was doing.” The Spaniard then praises the young driver for his reaction. “He just apologized, said he said it in the heat of the moment. That he had seen the replay and that I actually hadn’t hindered him that much, since it was FP1 and not an important lap of the weekend – and because he wasn’t that badly hindered, he reacted a bit emotionally at that moment.”
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For Sainz, the matter was settled. “If someone expresses themselves so openly and says that to your face as soon as he sees you, then for me that is a sign that he is a great guy,” the Madrilenian praises the young Mercedes driver. “So I can only thank him for that and wish him all the best.”
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