Mercedes has poked fun at Kimi Antonelli's awkward reversing mishap in Austin, sharing in-car footage of the moment on its TikTok account with the caption, "Championship leader BTW."
The short clip shows the 20-year-old at the wheel of a Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupé. As he backed up the electric vehicle, he misjudged the space and made contact with the wooden fencing behind him.
The video, which shows Antonelli and his team-mate George Russell's immediate reactions, had already been viewed over 9 million times and received more than 1.3 million likes at the time of writing.
"It’s comforting to know that even an F1 driver has trouble parking," one fan commented, while another added: "GEORGE’S FACE AHAHAHAHAHA."
While the off-track mishap was a tad embarrassing, Antonelli's impressive on-track performance this season has given him a chance to claim his first championship.
The title was within reach at the United States Grand Prix but would have required him to win the race while Russell finished outside of the top eight and Lewis Hamilton outside of the top four.
The Italian driver claimed his ninth grand prix victory of the season in Austin, but fourth-place for Hamilton and eighth for Russell meant the championship fight continues to Mexico.
"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."
When asked about being in touching distance of his maiden title, the Italian added: "I know we're very close, but we'll try to finish on a high and hopefully we can clinch it very soon."
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