Dutch GP: Antonelli’s bold Turn 3 lunge wipes out Leclerc as Ferrari’s Sunday implodes
Zandvoort bit back. Charles Leclerc had just hauled his Ferrari into play when Kimi Antonelli hurled a move down the inside at the banked Turn 3 and lit the fuse on a messy Dutch Grand Prix — one that ended with both scarlet cars parked and Mercedes carving into Ferrari’s grip on second in the Constructors’ standings.
Leclerc had muscled past George Russell for fifth by Lap 33, Ferrari calling him in shortly after to cover Antonelli’s final stop. The rookie had been released by Mercedes with serious pace, Russell having ceded position after picking up damage in his fight with Leclerc. Then came the moment.
Antonelli dived late into the bowl of Turn 3, drifted up the banking and tagged the Ferrari’s left-rear. Leclerc was fired into the wall. Game over. A quiet, exasperated walk up the dune followed for the Monegasque, who watched the rest of the race with his helmet in his hands as Zandvoort roared on beneath him.
“It’s a mistake from Kimi,” Leclerc said afterwards. “On a track like this you’ve got to be very aggressive to overtake — he tried to be, but that was a bit too much. He touched my rear left and that was the end of my race. Disappointing.”
Asked if it felt like a rookie error from the teenager, Leclerc refused the easy line. “I wouldn’t describe it as a rookie mistake. It’s a mistake that can happen in your first year or your fifth. You need aggression here, but that was over the limit.”
Antonelli, in his debut season alongside Russell at Mercedes, didn’t quibble with the stewards’ view. He took the blame, incurred a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision, then compounded it with another five seconds for speeding in the pit lane. A long afternoon ended with him classified 16th.
“For sure, I’m disappointed,” he told TV after the flag. “The race was looking very good — strong pace, I was feeling good in the car. For the contact, it’s on me. I tried to avoid it when I saw he was coming back in front, but it wasn’t enough. Sorry to Charles and to the team. We move forward.”
Ferrari’s day had already been wobbling. Lewis Hamilton — now in red for 2025 alongside Leclerc — had slapped the wall at the same Turn 3 earlier, his race ending with a crunch and a wince. Leclerc’s exit later sealed a double DNF that will sting all the way back to Maranello.
Mercedes, meanwhile, did what Mercedes do: picked up the pieces. Russell executed a tidy recovery to fourth, banking a thick stack of points while his team-mate served his penalties and limped home. In a Constructors’ fight where every swing counts, the silver cars trimmed Ferrari’s buffer for second place and left the Dutch dunes feeling a lot brighter than their rivals did.
The flashpoint itself will get plenty of slow-motion replays. Turn 3 at Zandvoort invites temptation — a steep, NASCAR-style camber that can reward a brave lunge or punish a half-measure. Antonelli went for the former and landed the latter. There was ambition, there was grip, and there was a Ferrari that wasn’t going to vanish. The contact felt almost inevitable from the second he committed.
Context matters here. Mercedes has backed the 18-year-old with full confidence for 2025, while Ferrari is bedding in Hamilton and recalibrating after a topsy-turvy opening phase of the season. Both teams are pushing hard to be the best of the rest behind the title favourites, and on tight, high-energy circuits like Zandvoort the line between “decisive” and “destructive” can be one wheel’s width.
Leclerc, to his credit, kept the heat out of his assessment. Antonelli, to his credit, owned the error. The stewards handed down the penalties. That should be the end of it — until they find themselves door-to-door again, perhaps as soon as next time out. Zandvoort’s banking won’t be there to trap them, but the stakes certainly will be.
What’s left is the scoreboard. Ferrari leaves with nothing after a day that could’ve been more, Mercedes pockets Russell’s points, and the tug-of-war for P2 in the Constructors tightens. For Leclerc, it’s another bruise on a year where rhythm has been hard to lock in. For Antonelli, it’s part of the rookie education — painful on Sunday night, invaluable by Monday morning.
