George Russell booed after Kimi Antonelli battle at Italian GP

Booing could be heard, directed the way of George Russell, following his second-place finish at the Italian Grand Prix.

Russell was booed by a section of the Tifosi on two occasions during the podium ceremony. It came after home hero Kimi Antonelli successfully caught and passed Mercedes teammate Russell to claim a sensational win, though a take two was needed for Antonelli to complete the winning move, after ending up in the gravel the first time around.

George Russell booed after Italian Grand Prix

It was a three-way battle for the lead of a thrilling Italian Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen up against the two Mercedes.

Antonelli had made remarkable progress, having started the race in P20 due to a back-of-the-grid engine penalty.

Mercedes split the strategies for the final stint, after Lance Stroll’s retirement from the race triggered a Virtual Safety Car. Antonelli and Verstappen pitted, Russell went to the end on his hard tyres.

Antonelli, on fresher and softer medium tyres, won this particular strategy battle, though there was a bump along the way.

Russell, struggling on his old hard rubber, attempted to defend into the opening chicane. Antonelli ended up understeering into the gravel on exit.

“What the f**k happened there?” Antonelli exclaimed over team radio. Both drivers were told to “keep it clean.”

Such was his pace advantage, Antonelli quickly closed back in on Russell and at the second attempt, completed the move which won him the race.

Then came the podium ceremony, and as P2 finisher Russell made his way out, loud booing could be heard directed his way.

More subtle booing returned when Russell lifted his P2 trophy.

The only logical trigger for the booing was that late exchange between the Mercedes drivers, as Antonelli ended up in the gravel.

Russell was very magnanimous towards his teammate when speaking immediately after the race.

“Huge congrats to Kimi, of course. Incredible result from him,” Russell said.

“When I looked on the leaderboard at the beginning, I saw he was already in sort of P5, P4. I knew straight away he was going to be in the mix. So huge congrats to him.

“It was looking like a pretty strong race from us, and then I was just struggling with the tyres towards the end. Obviously, we did the whole race on that one hard tyre.

“I’ll take it. It’s been more positive than it was pre-summer break, and that’s what I needed to try and achieve. But of course, I would have loved to have been P1 today.”

Of course, the elephant in the room was that split strategy at Mercedes.

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Russell was not expecting Antonelli would pit under the VSC, but defended the call from Mercedes.

“To be honest, I thought we were both going to stay out,” said Russell. “I was surprised to see him pitting.

“I think, in the end, it was a roll of the dice both ways. In the moment, the team wouldn’t have known which strategy was better. It made sense to split the cars.

“But in the end, Kimi had great pace, and there we are.”

Antonelli is now 66 points clear of Russell at the top of the Drivers’ standings.

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