Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff addressed the hairy on-track moment between Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell at the 2025 F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The teammates nearly collided on the lap 5 restart while fighting for P4.Russell had started the race in P5 behind his rookie teammate, and the order was the same when Max Verstappen led the field to a restart. Russell gained on Antonelli on the long main straight and was ahead on the outside going into Turn 1.However, Antonelli didn't relent and went elbows out to go side-by-side in the corner before his Mercedes teammate had to bail out of the move to avoid a collision. While the 18-year-old retained P4, George Russell lost two places to Yuki Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar after losing pace during his evasive maneuver.Toto Wolff addressed the near-race-ending incident between his two drivers and defended Kimi Antonelli's move."Sometimes when you are close and next to each other, these things can happen. I think it was an okay situation; there wasn't any ill intent from Kimi to push [George] out. Kimi left the door open a bit, but then George had to back out of it, just not to risk a collision," Wolff said via RN365.While Kimi Antonelli retained P4 in the short term, George Russell, who began the Azerbaijan GP weekend affected by a viral flu, showed magnificent race craft and nursed his tires well to secure a P2 finish behind race winner Max Verstappen.Toto Wolff commends Antonelli's "rebound" at Baku after "underwhelming" showing at Italian GPAndrea Kimi Antonelli at the 2025 F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix - Source: GettyToto Wolff praised Andrea Kimi Antonelli after his P4 finish at the Azerbaijan GP. The Mercedes rookie arrived on the race weekend in Baku with a weight on his shoulders after his boss labeled his performance at the Italian GP "underwhelming".Antonelli had struggled at his home race in Monza, starting in seventh and finishing in ninth. He also exceeded track limits on multiple occasions, getting a black-and-white warning flag, and then a separate five-second penalty for running Alex Albon off the track.However, in Baku, the 18-year-old impressed Toto Wolff. He out-qualified Russell on Saturday and held onto P4 until the end of the 51-lap race."It was a really good rebound after Monza," Wolff said about Antonelli's performance. "He had such a difficult spell with the European races. And coming in here with a solid P4, running in the front group, that's something to continue to build on and consolidate and then have more good weekends until the end of the year."Mercedes' 2-4 result put them ahead of Ferrari in the 2025 F1 Constructors' Championship (290 vs 286 points). The Scuderia struggled severely in Baku, with Lewis Hamilton finishing in P8 and Charles Leclerc behind him in P9.