Kimi Antonelli handed costly grid penalty for British GP

Kimi Antonelli has been handed a three-place grid penalty for the British Grand Prix after colliding with Max Verstappen in Austria.

Antonelli made contact with Verstappen in the braking zone of Turn 3 after losing control of his Mercedes challenger.

It marked Antonelli's fourth non-score in five races, with the torrid streak broken by an impressive podium finish in Canada.

The rookie will enter the Silverstone race weekend with a penalty hanging over his head as the stewards opted to issue Antonelli a three-place grid drop for causing a collision and two penalty points.

Explaining their decision, the stewards said: "The driver of Car 12 locked up the rear brakes into Turn 3 and collided with Car 1. In the hearing the driver admitted that he made a mistake as he locked up the rear wheels while using his regular braking point, but also pointed out that he needed to avoid a collision with Car 30 in front of him and released the brakes for a short period of time to do so. 

"Taking evasive action led to the car having less grip on the dirty inside line and therefore he was not able to decelerate the car in a way to avoid the collision with Car 1. The Stewards determine that, although the incident happened in Lap 1, no other cars influenced the incident and the driver of Car 12 is fully at fault. 

"Therefore the more lenient approach to judging Lap 1 incidents has not been applied in this case. However, they also acknowledge that the incident was not a blatant attempt to dive into the corner but rather a result of the evasive action after locking up. As the driver was not able to continue the race a grid drop for the next race is applied."