The Monegasque criticized the Italian's maneuvers over the radio, Leclerc admitted he was "a bit harsh" with his words. Antonelli finished sixth due to a penalty.
The Miami Grand Prix sprint race not only left a victory for Lando Norris, but also a new chapter in the tense on track relationship between Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli, the Ferrari driver and the young Italian from Mercedes starred in a tough duel in the first laps that ended with radio criticism and a subsequent exchange of statements.
The incident was triggered after a poor start by Antonelli, which made him fall from second to fourth place, ahead of him were Oscar Piastri and Leclerc himself, with whom the Italian got into a wheel to wheel battle, the Monegasque's reaction was not long in coming. "Kimi is very bad at wheel to wheel maneuvers, he moved under braking, it's incredible. We're going to crash," he said over the radio.
It was not the first time they had had a run in, in Antonelli's debut season in 2025, the young Mercedes driver took Leclerc off the track at the Dutch Grand Prix, they were also involved in a three way collision alongside Piastri in Brazil. The history added tension to a duel that, on this occasion, ended without contact but with a lot of tension.
After the race, calmer now, Leclerc acknowledged that his words had been excessive: "Maybe I was a bit harsh, with the adrenaline inside the car. It's true that we've had our brushes with Kimi in the past and I hope that calms down a bit from now on, especially because he's the only Italian driver on the grid and he's racing against Ferrari, I wish it was with someone else and besides, I really like Kimi as a person," said the Monegasque, with a certain ironic tone.
The Ferrari driver wanted to qualify that his anger was specific: "It's just that sometimes he gets too close and it's not really necessary, in this particular case, I was quite angry in the car, but the comments were probably a bit too harsh," he explained.
Antonelli, for his part, finished the sprint in fourth place, but a five second penalty for repeated track limit infringements dropped him to sixth place, the Italian acknowledged his frustration, especially with the start: "We've been working during the break on starts and, on my part, for once I did everything right with the procedures, so we need to see what happened, the grip was very low, probably lower than we expected. After that I felt very frustrated, I didn't even drive well, I made many mistakes, I went off the track limits, something I have to avoid," he concluded.
The Leclerc Antonelli duel promises to continue to be a talking point, with Mercedes and Ferrari fighting for the championship, and with the Italian as the only representative of his country on the grid, every clash between them takes on a special dimension. Leclerc has already asked for calm, we'll have to see if Antonelli listens.