Red Bull say they "sincerely regret" comments made at the Qatar Grand Prix that led to Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli receiving death threats.
Antonelli changed his Instagram profile picture to black, external on Monday morning after receiving hurtful messages on social media, several of which were death threats, Mercedes said.
Max Verstappen's race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase said over team radio to the Dutchman that it "looked like" Antonelli had "just pulled over and let Norris through" after the Italian ran wide at Turn 10 on the penultimate lap and lost fourth place to the McLaren driver.
The incident resulted in Norris gaining an extra two points, meaning the Briton leads Verstappen by 12 points rather than 10 going into a three-way title decider in Abu Dhabi this weekend.
A Red Bull statement issued on Monday said: "Comments made before the end of and immediately after the Qatar GP suggesting that Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli had deliberately allowed Lando Norris to overtake him are clearly incorrect.
"Replay footage shows Antonelli momentarily losing control of his car, thus allowing Norris to pass him. We sincerely regret that this has led to Kimi receiving online abuse."
The Red Bull statement stopped short of an apology for the accusation that Antonelli had deliberately let Norris through.
However, a Mercedes spokesperson said Lambiase had apologised to Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, who had confronted him after the race about the comments.
