Verstappen taken out of the Austrian GP by Antonelli

Verstappen's weekend went from bad to worse when his Austrian GP ended prematurely after an out-0f-control Antonelli locked up heavily into Turn 3, hitting the Dutchman and damaging his Mercedes as well.

The four-time F1 champion has had a tough weekend in Austria so far, qualifying seventh struggling with the pace of his RB21 and also disadvantaged by a Yellow Flag late in Q3 of qualifying after Pierre Gasly spun.

Verstappen said over the team radio: "I'm out, I got hit like crazy. F@cking idiots."

Antonelli on the other hand radioed saying: "Sorry about that, I locked the rear."

The race start was aborted after Carlos Sainz couldn't get his Williams to launch on the formation lap and then retired with his rear brakes on fire.

Race control called for another formation lap with the race laps reduced from 71 to 70.

As such, Verstappen will walk away from his team's home race with zero points which doesn't bode well for him as his main title rivals, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris will be fighting for the win in Spielberg.

Heading into this weekend, Verstappen was third in F1 drivers' championship, 43 points behind leader Piastri and 21 points behind Norris who is second.

If the McLaren drivers manage to bring their cars home safely in Austria, that gap will be quite big, maybe too big for Verstappen to hope to secure a fifth title in a row...