Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was quick to poke fun at Andrea Kimi Antonelli over radio on the cool-down lap of the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix.
Antonelli finished third at the Marina Bay Circuit after a mundane race, in which he capitalised on an on-track battle between Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton.
Running fifth, the Italian overtook both the McLaren and the Ferrari as pair jostled for position, and duly held onto the podium position at the chequered flag.
The result gives Antonelli the chance to seal the Drivers’ World Championship at the next race in Austin, Texas, in two weeks’ time.
But Antonelli pushed his luck during the race, as he was at risk of invoking a mandatory time penalty for four separate track limits violations during the 62-lap race.
Mercifully, the Silver Arrows convinced the stewards to excuse one of his misdemeanours, enabling him to avoid the penalty.
On the cool-down lap, Antonelli was congratulated by race engineer Peter Bonnington for managing his race amid complaints of a braking issue.
Returning the thanks for the team’s hard work over the weekend, Bonnington replied: “Yeah. Thank you, mate. A couple of niggles in this race that we need to iron out. Yeah. That brake issue not fully understood, but I think that lockup was caused by the sensor issue that we had on the grid.”
“Yeah, the pedal went so long. It was like I had no brake,” Antonelli replied.
After a further instruction from Bonnington, Wolff could not help but make a cheeky dig at his title-leading driver.
“Kimi, well driven. Well done. Maybe we need to have a little cushion under your arse to have you sit higher with the track limits, but it was very good!” he said.
Not taking the situation too seriously, Antonelli replied: “Yeah, we need to consider that!”
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