Andrea Kimi Antonelli was in a road accident in Serravalle earlier this week. According to a traffic police report, his car made contact with a guardrail, and no other vehicles were involved. Thankfully, he walked away without any injuries.
Mercedes later confirmed the incident in a statement, saying that it happened last Saturday evening near his home in San Marino. Kimi called the police himself, and although the car sustained noticeable damage, he was unharmed.
At the time of the crash, Antonelli was driving a Mercedes AMG GT 63 PRO 4MATIC+ “Motorsport Collectors Edition.” Only 200 of these cars exist worldwide, making it an extremely rare model. Mercedes had recently celebrated delivering the car to him before last month’s Barcelona test. The supercar features hand-painted bodywork in a Petronas-inspired design, along with several special technical upgrades. It’s built with an aerodynamic setup that reduces lift, an improved cooling system, and a powerful 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 engine that produces 612 horsepower.
Despite the accident, the crash will not impact Antonelli’s testing schedule in Bahrain. He is still set to drive the Mercedes W17 on Wednesday afternoon for the opening session. He’ll be back in the car on Thursday morning and again on Friday afternoon for the final session. George Russell will handle the opposite sessions for Mercedes throughout the week.
Antonelli’s debut testing programme has been highly anticipated, and even with the unexpected bump in the road, he’s ready to get behind the wheel and focus on the season ahead.