Jeremy Clarkson issues four-word Kimi Antonelli defence after Jacques Villeneuve attack

Jeremy Clarkson has leapt to the defence of Kimi Antonelli after the youngster's wretched Dutch Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver continued his difficult run with another pointless result, meaning he has scored just a single point across the eight European races held this year.

After a disappointing qualifying, which saw him start the Grand Prix 12th, the race was going well for a while and it looked as though, for the first time in more than two months, the teenager was on track to deliver a significant points haul as he made his way up the order.

But it all unravelled when he attempted a move on Charles Leclerc which was never on. A dive up the inside ended with him smacking the rear-left wheel of the Ferrari, sending into a spin before it hit the barrier, ripping off the nose of the car and putting it out of the race.

Antonelli received a 10-second time penalty for causing that collision, and had a further five seconds added to his time when caught speeding in the pit lane. He crossed the line sixth on the road, but was relegated to 16th in the final classification once those penalties were applied.

Working as a pundit for Sky Sports at Zandvoort, former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve was brutal in his criticism of the under-pressure rookie. "Very poor. A move that you might see in Formula 4, Formula 3 from a driver who doesn't have experience and just not calculated the way it should be," was his assessment of Antonelli's botched Leclerc overtake.

"When you're in F1, you will make mistakes. You drive too hard your limit. But that was not even that. It was just badly calculated. He shouldn't have done that, and then he got all riled up and [broke the] speed limit as well."

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Villeneuve was asked on air whether that was fair criticism, given Antonelli's age, but the Canadian doubled down by naming other drivers who hit the ground running as rookies despite their tender years. He replied: "He's in Formula 1. What age was Max when he arrived in F1? What age was Lewis when he arrived? Exactly. So that's not a good excuse."

But plenty have disagreed with Villeneuve, including Jeremy Clarkson who clearly has some sympathy for the Mercedes youngster. Posting on social media, the former presenter of Top Gear and The Grand Tour drilled home the point: "Antonelli is a teenager."

Antonelli was also defended by Villeneuve's on air colleague Naomi Schiff, who said: "I think, to his defence a little bit on the age thing, I think if we look back at Max, when he was 16,17, 18, when he came into F1, how many big mistakes he was making.

"I mean, he was always pushing things a little bit over the limits. And the good thing is, [Antonelli] is pushing things over the limit. They're not having to get him to there, so now they've just got to rein him in, because he's got it. He just needs to not miscalculate so many things."