Red Bull's insinuations over Lando Norris going past Kimi Antonelli late on in the Qatar Grand Prix have earned a sharp rebuke from Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff - who described it as "brainless" and "total nonsense".

Antonelli lost fourth place to a tyre-offset Norris on the penultimate lap of the Lusail race, giving the Briton a potentially crucial two points in the championship.

Onboard footage from the Mercedes showed Antonelli loose and needing to correct a snap through the long right-hander Turn 10, which sent him into the run-off and made it easy for Norris to pounce. A similar moment had triggered a Fernando Alonso spin at the same corner earlier in the race.

But Red Bull was unconvinced by what had transpired in the initial aftermath. "Not sure what happened to Antonelli, Max, looks like he just pulled over and let Norris through!" race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase recounted to Max Verstappen during the race - while Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko repeatedly described what happened as Antonelli "waving past" Norris in a Sky Germany interview, in which he also seemingly referred to it as "too obvious".

The logic would be that Mercedes would want to ensure a Mercedes-powered driver to win the drivers' title - which Norris is, and Verstappen is not.

But Wolff - who has a close relationship with Marko - was very unimpressed with the insinuation, and also revealed he had spoken to Lambiase.

"Bless him, Helmut," he said, before launching into the stern rebuke.

"This is total, utter nonsense that blows my mind even to hear that. We're fighting for a P2 in the [constructors’] championship, which is important for us. Kimi is fighting for a potential P3 [in the race].

"How brainless can you be to even say something like this? And it annoys me because I'm annoyed with the race itself, how it went. I'm annoyed with the mistake at the end. I'm annoyed with other mistakes and then hearing such nonsense blows my mind.

"The other thing is that, beyond losing the points for a constructors' championship, I spoke to GP, I saw him, obviously he's emotional in that moment - I said to him, 'he [Antonelli] just went off'. He had a bit of a moment in the previous corner and had less entry speed into that left-hander, put the gas down - and at that moment, which can happen, that lost the position. 

"So with GP everything is clear there. He said he didn't see the situation. Why would we do this?"