Kimi Antonelli secured an exceptional victory at the Italian Grand Prix by climbing up from 19th place. The Italian beats George Russell and Max Verstappen at the end of a completely crazy race.
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Kimi Antonelli has just achieved one of the season’s feats. Condemned to start from 19th position following penalties related to his power unit, the championship leader crossed the entire field to finally win his home Grand Prix in front of the Monza tifosi.
The Italian wins ahead of his teammate George Russell and Max Verstappen after 53 particularly eventful laps, notably marked by the huge accident of Charles Leclerc at the start of the race.
Mercedes thus signs a spectacular one-two, even if the battle between its two drivers was particularly intense for a good part of the race.
Leclerc causes a red flag right at the start
At the start, Pierre Gasly manages to keep the benefit of his surprising pole position ahead of Russell. Behind, the two Ferraris immediately find themselves side by side.
Hamilton dives inside Leclerc in the first chicane. The Briton leaves enough space for his teammate, but Leclerc then pushes him towards the outside on exit. Hamilton has to go through the gravel and falls back to tenth position. The incident is examined by the stewards, without leading to an investigation.
Russell then quickly takes the lead by overtaking Gasly. Leclerc finds himself engaged in several battles, notably against Verstappen then Piastri.
At the end of the second lap, the Monegasque suddenly loses control of his Ferrari at the exit of the Parabolica. His car crosses the gravel before violently ending its race in the barriers.
After a yellow flag and then the intervention of the safety car, the race direction finally deploys the red flag to repair the barriers. Leclerc fortunately manages to get out of his car quickly.
Antonelli already climbs up at full speed
After four laps, Russell leads ahead of Gasly and Verstappen. Colapinto occupies a surprising fourth place ahead of Piastri and Norris, while Antonelli has already climbed up to 12th place.
After more than half an hour of interruption, a new standing start is organized.
Russell keeps the lead while Colapinto briefly manages to overtake Verstappen. The Argentine however makes a mistake shortly after and ends up in the gravel at the first Lesmo.
Antonelli continues his incredible climb. By the tenth lap, the Mercedes driver is in sixth place before overtaking Gasly. A few moments later, he also gets rid of Hamilton and already reaches the provisional podium.
Starting 19th, Antonelli thus finds himself among the top three after only thirteen laps.
Verstappen attacks Russell, Antonelli even stronger
Up front, Verstappen manages to take the lead from Russell at the start of the 12th lap. But the Briton does not give up and finally recovers first place a few laps later.
Antonelli then arrives on the Red Bull.
The Italian wastes no time and overtakes Verstappen the following lap to settle in second position. His climb takes an even more spectacular dimension at the start of the 18th lap when he attacks Russell and takes the lead of the Grand Prix.
Mercedes then finds itself with its two drivers in direct fight for the victory.
Russell fights back on the 19th lap, but Antonelli immediately regains the advantage in the second chicane. The scenario repeats a few laps later: Russell passes his teammate in the first chicane before seeing Antonelli respond with a superb outside maneuver in the second.
Mercedes intervenes in the duel between its drivers
The fight between the two Mercedes allows Verstappen to stay in their slipstream. Russell however begins to benefit from his hard tires against Antonelli’s mediums and ends up taking the lead again for good.
On the 24th lap, Verstappen even comes back to less than a second from the Italian.
Mercedes then decides to intervene and asks its drivers to calm their confrontation to allow Russell to try to build a gap.
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The race’s complexion changes again three laps later.
The Virtual Safety Car changes the strategy
Lance Stroll’s stop on track causes a Virtual Safety Car on the 27th lap. Antonelli immediately takes the opportunity to pit and put on new medium tires. Verstappen also stops and opts for hard tires.
Russell stays on track and takes a comfortable lead.
Antonelli then has to rebuild his race. He quickly overtakes Gasly, then Norris, before gradually catching up with the leaders.
On the 35th lap, Russell still has an eight-second lead over Piastri. But Antonelli gets rid of Hamilton then the Australian McLaren to regain second position on the 37th lap.
The two Mercedes again occupy the top two places.
Russell’s tires change everything
With ten laps to go, the gap between Russell and Antonelli falls below five seconds.
The Briton however has extremely worn tires. On the 46th lap, Mercedes warns him of an alert concerning his tires, which then have more than 40 laps. The team asks him to take no risks.
Antonelli closes in on his teammate and comes back to less than a second at the end of the 47th lap. Victory then seems within his reach.
At the start of the following lap, the Italian attempts a first outside attack at the first chicane. Russell brakes late and slightly widens his line. Antonelli seems to have done the hardest part, but runs over rubber debris while rounding his line and ends up in the gravel.
He nevertheless manages to restart and loses only about a second and a half.
Antonelli comes back and makes the decisive attack
The mistake could have cost him the victory. It only delays it. Antonelli immediately comes back on Russell and is again in his slipstream by the 50th lap.
This time, he does not miss the opportunity. The Italian definitively takes the lead on the descent to Ascari and escapes enough to prevent Russell from responding.
Behind, Verstappen manages to momentarily detach from the McLarens, but the battle remains intense until the last kilometers.
Nothing can however prevent Antonelli from crossing the finish line as the winner.
A monumental home victory
Starting 19th and winning at Monza: hard to imagine a more spectacular scenario for the championship leader.
Penalized even before the start and forced to begin the race almost at the back of the grid, Antonelli combined aggressiveness, pace, and strategic management to cross the field before beating his own teammate in the final laps.
Russell must settle for second place after having seemed to control the race for a long time, while Verstappen completes the podium.
Gasly, who had created a sensation by securing the first pole position of his career on Saturday, ultimately was not able to maintain the pace of the favorites over the distance.
Ferrari leaves its home Grand Prix with many regrets after Leclerc’s accident and a complicated race for Hamilton.
But the man of the day is undoubtedly Kimi Antonelli. Starting 19th, the Italian made an exceptional climb to win at Monza and turn a weekend that seemed compromised into a resounding triumph in front of his home crowd.
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