Toto Wolff took aim at two senior Red Bull chiefs for their “utter nonsense” claims that Kimi Antonelli moved aside for Lando Norris late in the Qatar Grand Prix. The potentially consequential moment happened on the penultimate lap when the teenager ran off track, allowing Norris to overtake and finish fourth.

It helped the Brit to remedy some of the damage done by his McLaren team’s disastrous decision not to pit during an early safety car period. Max Verstappen did and went on to win the race while pole-sitter Oscar Piastri had to settle for second and Norris never made it to the podium.

But the championship leader’s late move past Antonelli has made his life that little bit easier in terms of the title picture. The two points he gained by finishing fourth rather than fifth means he now only needs to finish third in Abu Dhabi next Sunday, rather than second, and Red Bull were not at all happy with that incident which has hampered Verstappen’s comeback charge.

Informing his driver of what had happened, the Dutchman’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase said over the radio: “I am not sure what happened to Antonelli there. It looked like he just pulled over and let Lando through.”

Speaking to reporters in the paddock, long-serving team adviser Helmut Marko went as far as to claim it was “so obvious” that Antonelli had moved aside on purpose. He said: “It was twice where he more or less waved Lando by. It was so obvious. Antonelli now helps our main competitor, in Austria he was crashing [Verstappen] in the rear.”

But Mercedes team boss Wolff was less than impressed with his fellow Austrian’s accusation as he revealed he had spoken directly with Lambiase after the race to clear up what had happened. He said: “This is total, utter nonsense that blows my mind. We are fighting for second in the constructors’ championship, which is important for us.

“Kimi is fighting for a potential third in the race. I mean, how brainless can you be to even say something like this? And it annoys me. Because I’m annoyed with the race itself, how it went. I’m annoyed with the mistake at the end. I’m annoyed with other mistakes. And then hearing such nonsense blows my mind.

“I spoke to GP [Lambiase]. Obviously, they were emotional in that moment. I said to him, ‘He [Antonelli] just went off. He had a bit of a moment in the previous corner and then less entry speed into the left-hander. It can happen’. So with GP everything is clear. We cleared the air. He said that he didn’t see the situation.

“But why would we do this? Why would we even think about interfering in a driver championship? You really need to check yourself and whether you are seeing ghosts.”