They arrived at the press conference separately. They sat alongside each other but did not make eye contact. And their exits were staggered as they further avoided any interaction.
For team-mates sitting next to each other on the famous white F1 press conference sofa, Kimi Antonelli and George Russell could not have been further apart.
Having been shuffled upstairs to the paddock building straight from the post-sprint television interviews, Russell had arrived in the press conference room a few moments after runner-up Lando Norris, to take up his spot at the centre of the sofa.
Around one minute later, Antonelli walked in alone – eyes fixated in the distance as he sat down to the left of Russell – who stared straight ahead.
While emotions, with the adrenaline winding down, may not have been quite as high as they were in the car, such press conferences still offer a fascinating snapshot of mindsets and feelings.
Well aware that they are going to be probed on the key flash points of a race, what answers they give can tell an awful lot.
From Russell’s perspective, there was very much the stance of taking the high ground – and he repeatedly made reference to the stewards having not even ‘investigated’ what happened between them at Turn 1.
He called it a “good hard battle” and “kudos to Kimi for giving it a go”, but he absolutely did not see anything “untoward” having happened.
“I didn’t think I did anything wrong,” he said. “I wasn’t investigated so I guess the race directors and stewards thought the same. But I need to check it.
“It is clear that between team-mates we race hard and fair, with no contact and that’s always the objective. I wasn’t racing Kimi any harder than I would have raced Lando in the same position.”
That phrasing of “no contact” was interesting – because what appeared to have been a slight brushing between the two cars seemed the most likely element that prompted Antonelli to be so upset – and triggered that radio message where he said: “If we need to race like this, good to know.”
The Italian referenced early on that “there was definitely contact” – an element that is most likely on the must-avoid list from Mercedes’ race morning briefings.
“We do meetings before races and that’s what we say in the room,” explained Antonelli. “Then, of course we race to win, and we try to do our best to defend our position. So of course, probably, I understood the significance of that meeting a bit differently.”
It was on this point that Antonelli suggested there needed to be “clarity”.
“The main thing for the team is that there’s no contact, that we don’t crash into each other – which today at the end was very close,” he said.
“I think that’s the most important for the team. Also as a driver, you don’t want to crash into your own team-mate.
“We all want the best for, first of all, each other, but also for the team. So for sure we will clarify and everything’s going to be fine.”
With the press conference wound-up, this was the potential moment where the Mercedes team-mates would exchange some remarks with the microphones and cameras off. But it did not happen.
Instead, Antonelli jumped up from the sofa and made an instant beeline for press conference host Tom Clarkson.
They chatted intently – but this was not about F1. Antonelli was simply checking in about whether Clarkson’s feet had recovered from running the London Marathon, which the pair had talked about in Miami.
As Clarkson and Antonelli spoke to each other, Russell walked out with Norris in his slipstream – heading down first to the television media pen prior to what would likely end up some interesting meetings in the Mercedes offices later.