Mercedes mocks championship leader Antonelli after he reverses into a fence in Austin

Mercedes turned Kimi Antonelli’s off-track embarrassment into viral content after the Formula 1 championship leader accidentally reversed into a wooden fence in Austin, with the team posting in-car footage on TikTok under the caption: “Championship leader BTW.”

The short clip shows the 20-year-old Italian at the wheel of a Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupé, misjudging the space as he backed up and making contact with the fencing behind him. The video also captures the immediate reactions of team-mate George Russell, and had accumulated more than 9 million views and 1.3 million likes at the time of writing.

Fans were quick to pile on with good humour. “It’s comforting to know that even an F1 driver has trouble parking,” one commenter wrote, while another highlighted Russell’s expression: “GEORGE’S FACE AHAHAHAHAHA.”

The parking incident was a rare blemish in what has otherwise been a dominant season for Antonelli. He claimed his ninth grand prix victory of the campaign at the United States Grand Prix in Austin, keeping his title bid firmly alive heading into the Mexican Grand Prix.

The championship could have been sealed in Austin, but the mathematics required Antonelli to win while Russell finished outside the top eight and Lewis Hamilton outside the top four. Hamilton’s fourth-place finish and Russell’s eighth meant the fight goes on.

“It was the result we needed, to be fair, and the whole team deserved it so much,” Antonelli said after the race. “All this time, putting so much work on bringing this new package and finally seeing the result is very pleasant. It was also a perfect execution from strategy to call the one-stop. Really happy that we made it stick and today was a great team effort.”

Asked about the prospect of clinching his maiden title imminently, Antonelli kept his focus measured. “I know we’re very close, but we’ll try to finish on a high and hopefully we can clinch it very soon.”