Toto Wolff says George Russell and Kimi Antonelli battle in Canadian Grand Prix Sprint is great cinema

Russell ultimately won the Sprint Race from pole, but not before two hairy moments when Antonelli tried to pass him, but the two clashed with the Italian coming off worse and losing second place to McLaren's Lando Norris.

Antonelli insisted Russell pushed him off and was vocal over the radio about it, so much so that his race engineer, Peter Bonnington, could not calm him down, which meant Wolff had to interfere.

Speaking after the Sprint, Wolff was naturally asked about the battle between his drivers, which could turn into a nightmare like the one the Austrian had to deal with when he had Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg driving for his team between the 2013 and and 2016 Formula 1 seasons. 

"It was great cinema!" Wolff joked. "Tough fighting, not only between our two but also with Lando [Norris]. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it.

"If you fight a bit, you can lose a race. If that goes a bit longer in a race, Norris may well win.

"I really enjoy these moments as they allow us to learn and say, 'How are we handling these things in the future?'

"You don't want to lose a race; you don't want to crash into each other, and sometimes it needs a little moment to remind us of our objectives.

"This is not particularly against one or the other, but there is a framework we want to establish, and I would rather have it in a Sprint race," he maintained.

As for Antonelli's outburst over the radio, Wolff commented: "We don't want to start race five with headlines like 'Star Wars' or 'this is escalating,' as it's not. It's emotion, and he is a young driver.

"George [Russell] would probably have done the same, so we will see how we handle it," Wolff concluded. (Source: Sky Sports F1)