{"id":40694,"date":"2026-06-15T12:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T12:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/40694\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T12:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T12:05:09","slug":"kimi-antonelli-branded-class-act-after-lewis-hamilton-barcelona-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/40694\/","title":{"rendered":"Kimi Antonelli branded &#8220;class act&#8221; after Lewis Hamilton Barcelona moment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Current championship leader Kimi Antonelli has earned the praise of fans after his interaction with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/lewis-hamilton\/1278\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Lewis Hamilton<\/a> was captured after the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The seven-time champion drove from second on the grid to win his first grand prix with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/team\/ferrari\/3\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Ferrari<\/a>, and while Antonelli was forced to retire from the race due to an electrical issue on his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/team\/mercedes\/5\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Mercedes<\/a> machinery, he made sure he was there to congratulate the Briton after the race.<\/p>\n<p>After Hamilton overtook Antonelli&#8217;s team-mate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/george-russell\/21167\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">George Russell<\/a> in the standings at the Monaco Grand Prix, he has now reduced the gap to the Italian driver to 41 points.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Fans were quick to praise the moment between the two championship rivals. &#8220;He is a childhood hero for most of the drivers!&#8221; one fan posted on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/formula1\/comments\/1u5nfft\/kimi_came_back_on_track_to_congratulate_lewis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-custom-text=\"1\">Reddit<\/a>\u00a0while another added: &#8220;I just hope it stays this way even if they end up fighting for the championship.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Class move from Kimi, especially considering how young he still is,&#8221; someone else commented, while another wrote: &#8220;Class act from the young man, a wise head on young shoulders.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Further comments included: &#8220;He is sad for the DNF but genuinely happy for Lewis&#8221;, &#8220;He is returning the favour, Lewis always congratulates him,&#8221; and &#8220;Kimi being happy and congratulatory for Lewis despite his own DNF, he\u2019s a sweet kid.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781525109_912_andrea-kimi-antonelli-mercedes.jpg\" alt=\"Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"title\">Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari<\/p>\n<p class=\"photographer\">Photo by: Jayce Illman \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Red Bull&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/max-verstappen\/17529\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Max Verstappen<\/a>, who finished fourth, was also seen congratulating Hamilton. &#8220;The respect across the paddock for Lewis is so amazing to see!&#8221; someone commented.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Max going out of his way to congratulate and people will still say there&#8217;s bad blood,&#8221; another fan wrote, and another comment read: &#8220;It was quite amazing to see the shared respect between all of them.\u00a0They all clearly know and are impressed by one another\u2019s capabilities.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The eighth round of the season will be the Austrian Grand\u00a0Prix from 26 to 28 June.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>            We want your opinion!<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-auto\">What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"#\" class=\"ms-link text-link font-bold\">Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-1 text-body\">&#8211; The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Current championship leader Kimi Antonelli has earned the praise of fans after his interaction with Lewis Hamilton was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[17799,92,17989,18329,11454,315,19084,13765,17797,1699],"class_list":["post-40694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","tag-barcelona","tag-barcelona-catalunya-gp","tag-f1-barcelona-catalunya-grand-prix","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-kimi-antonelli-branded-class-act-after-lewis-hamilton-barcelona-moment","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-mercedes","tag-trendingteam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}