Livid Hadjar angrily dismisses Antonelli’s apology after China Sprint clash

The Frenchman was an unfortunate victim of a bold overtaking attempt by Antonelli at the start of the Shanghai Sprint, with the Italian misjudging the gap while trying to recover positions after a poor getaway and ending up clipping the Frenchman’s RB22 with his left-front on the right-hand sidepod.

After the race, the Italian immediately went over to Hadjar in an attempt to apologise for the incident, but the Frenchman rejected the apology and told the Mercedes driver to go away.

Speaking to Canal+, Hadjar said after the race: “We wanted to understand how the soft was going to perform, and with a completely destroyed floor, we can’t work. I don’t understand why he’s overexcited like that when he’s got a rocketship and will recover regardless… Anyway, it happens.”

The Italian driver bounced back from a messy Sprint, where he dropped out of the podium places after serving a ten-second penalty for his contact with Hadjar, by delivering a superb qualifying performance to secure the first pole position of his career.

The Italian also benefited from a technical issue suffered by his teammate, becoming the youngest driver in Formula 1 history to take pole position.

Hadjar, meanwhile, could do no better than ninth, with Red Bull appearing to struggle significantly compared to their rivals so far this weekend in China.