Antonelli’s Inspired Home Win
Antonelli’s Inspired Home Win
As statement performances go, Kimi Antonelli’s drive to victory at Monza was an incredibly special one.
Heading into the weekend, all the talk on the Italian’s side of the garage was about damage limitation – sweeping power unit changes aboard his Mercedes leading to a hefty 30-place grid penalty.
However, Antonelli had other ideas, blending rapid raw pace and smart overtakes from the outset of Sunday’s race to charge through the field and put himself on the tail of team mate George Russell before the halfway mark.
He was 12th after just a couple of tours when Race Control threw a red flag for Charles Leclerc’s heavy crash, worked his way into the points shortly after the restart, and made an initial move on Russell for the lead on Lap 18.
A mid-race Virtual Safety Car played its part in the intra-team battle, with Antonelli pitting for fresh medium tyres and Russell staying out on used hards, but there was no denying the home racer’s underlying pace. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff even claimed afterwards that “nothing would have stopped him” from taking the chequered flag first.
The result means Antonelli now sits 66 points clear of Russell in the championship standings, only nine points shy of a three-win cushion. It will take some response from the Briton in the coming races to stop the youngster from storming to the 2026 crown…
A ‘devastating’ home race for Ferrari after Lap 1 drama
While Antonelli enjoyed a dream outing in his local Grand Prix, Ferrari’s homecoming proved a much tougher affair.
The team arrived at Monza with high hopes, with Lewis Hamilton admitting on Thursday that he “strongly believed” in the squad’s victory chances at an event where they would be bringing an engine upgrade, while Charles Leclerc stated that he would aim for a “very special weekend”.
This goal hit a snag on Saturday when both drivers were left feeling that the team’s strategy could have been executed more effectively in Qualifying, the session having left the pair in fourth and fifth – which became third and fourth on the grid following a penalty for Oscar Piastri ahead.
When Sunday’s Grand Prix got underway, third-placed Leclerc and Hamilton went wheel-to-wheel into the second corner and Hamilton subsequently ran wide into the gravel, dropping him down the order. “Charles pushed me off!” the seven-time World Champion radioed in.
One lap later, Leclerc’s charge came to an early end when he lost control of his SF-26 and crashed into the barriers, the Monegasque explaining later that he “had to go back off and on throttle” during the first tour and would have to “look into” what happened.
Hamilton, meanwhile, went on to cross the line in only sixth place. The Briton labelled his race as “a bit devastating” and “tough to swallow”, adding of his early incident with Leclerc: “I ended up P10 or something. There's not really much to say. We'll take it offline.”
Gasly delivers the shock of the season with pole
While the advantage of a slipstream in Qualifying meant a surprise result was always possible, no one expected Pierre Gasly and Alpine to snatch an incredible pole position at Monza on Saturday afternoon.
But Gasly's maiden Formula 1 pole position – at a venue where he scored his first and so far only victory six years ago – was no fluke. The Frenchman utilised the Mercedes power unit to go fastest in both Q1 and, when it mattered most, in Q3 to claim arguably The Shock of the Season.