Mercedes poked fun at its own Formula 1 driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli after he awkwardly crashed into a fence during a promotional filming event.
Antonelli had an embarrassing moment when he pranged the new Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupe before the race in Austin. After failing to notice his car was still in reverse, Antonelli drove directly into a wooden fence.
The 20-year-old Italian quickly found the right gear and drove off asking Mercedes team-mate George Russell, who was sat in the passenger seat, “is it OK?”
Russell couldn’t hide his amusement and started laughing, before telling Antonelli: “You need to put in drive! Forward!”
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Mercedes shared the hilarious clip across its social media accounts with the caption: “Championship leader BTW.”
At the time of writing, the video has already been viewed over 54 million times and received over 2.2 million likes.
Antonelli had the last laugh come the end of the weekend as he claimed a dominant victory at COTA in Sunday’s grand prix.
The win leaves Antonelli on the brink of clinching his first F1 world title, edging him towards an unbeatable points total with five races remaining.
Antonelli will be crowned champion in Mexico City next weekend as long as he does not lose more than 23 points to Russell or more than 24 to Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton.
Antonelli is on the brink of creating F1 history
A ninth place finish would be enough for Antonelli to wrap up the world championship even if Russell were to win the race.
Speaking shortly after his ninth victory of the season, Antonelli said: “We're very close but we’ll try to finish on a high, and hopefully we can clinch it very soon.
“I’m very excited. I would love to clinch the title in style with a great result.
"That’s the mindset. That’s always the mindset, and that’s what the mindset is going to be from now until the end of the season. I’m just going to try to enjoy every moment because they’re moments that will always be remembered.”
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