SPIELBERG, Austria :Max Verstappen suffered his first retirement of the Formula One 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.
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.
Sainz eventually got going and returned to the pitlane, where his car’s brakes caught fire before being extinguished by mechanics with smoke still billowing out as he was pushed back and into retirement.
