Antonelli Wins at Monza After Starting from 19th Place

Kimi Antonelli overcame the most challenging scenario of the season at Monza. A thirty-place grid penalty for power unit changes dropped him to the back of the grid for the Italian Grand Prix, and yet he still crossed the finish line first, something no driver born in Italy had achieved at their home circuit since Ludovico Scarfiotti did it in 1966.

Photo By Mercedes F1

Saturday's qualifying had already disrupted the plans of all the top teams. Pierre Gasly put Alpine on pole for the first time in the Frenchman's career in the category, using the Mercedes engine to edge out George Russell by the narrowest of margins. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton placed both Ferrari cars on the second row, with Max Verstappen fifth and Oscar Piastri dropping to sixth due to a penalty stemming from an incident with Liam Lawson.

At the start, Russell passed Gasly within just two laps and took the lead. The fight between Leclerc and Hamilton for third ended badly for both. Hamilton ran off track trying to defend his position and lost ground, and Leclerc lost the car at the Alboreto corner a lap later and hit the barriers. The impact brought out the Safety Car and then triggered a red flag, leaving Ferrari without one of its two cars at its home Grand Prix before the first laps were completed.

Photo By Mercedes F1

The restart opened the door for Antonelli to begin moving up through the field with speed. Within a few laps, he was fighting for points, and by lap ten he had overtaken Gasly and was battling at the front alongside Piastri and Lando Norris. The real fight came down to the two Mercedes cars. Russell held the lead while Antonelli closed the gap lap by lap, with moments when both ran so close that the team had to ask over the radio for them to avoid contact.

The tire strategy ultimately tipped the scales. Antonelli switched to fresh medium compounds during a Virtual Safety Car period, while Russell stayed out on worn hards. The performance difference became evident in the final stint. Antonelli closed the gap to the cars ahead, passed Piastri to move into second, and with Russell defending on severely worn tires, caught him and overtook him in the final laps to take the lead and hold it to the checkered flag.

Verstappen completed the top three, far from the victory fight but ahead of a McLaren split between Norris and Piastri, who finished almost nose-to-tail. Hamilton was the only Ferrari to finish the race, ending up in sixth place, well away from the prospects the Scuderia had built on Saturday with two cars on the second row. Gasly could not sustain the pace from pole and dropped to seventh, though still ahead of Franco Colapinto, who had run as high as the top three before an error at Lesmo and a subsequent recovery to ninth place.

Photo By Mercedes F1

The result leaves Antonelli with 267 points in the championship, 66 ahead of Russell, who has 201. Hamilton remains third with 191 points, followed by Norris with 171 and Leclerc with 155. Verstappen sits sixth with 127. The gap between Antonelli and Russell is now equivalent to nearly three full victories, a margin that is starting to weigh on Mercedes' real chances of deciding the title between its two drivers before the season ends.

For Ferrari, the balance is different. Losing Leclerc on the second lap of their home Grand Prix, with both cars on the second row just a day earlier, highlights that qualifying pace did not translate into results—a pattern that has repeated itself at various rounds this season. Antonelli, on the other hand, leaves Monza with proof that not even a thirty-place penalty can stop him when the car has the pace to carve through the entire field.

Pos.	No.	driver	team	time
1	#12	Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	-
2	#63	George Russell	Mercedes	+3.857s
3	#3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	+14.718s
4	#1	Lando Norris	McLaren	+19.056s
5	#81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+19.253s
6	#44	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	+24.655s
7	#10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+27.351s
8	#41	Arvid Lindblad	Racing Bulls	+45.136s
9	#43	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	+47.353s
10	#22	Yuki Tsunoda	Racing Bulls	+58.187s
11	#5	Gabriel Bortoleto	Audi	+1:05.187
12	#27	Nico Hulkenberg	Audi	+1:06.187
13	#55	Carlos Sainz	Williams	+1:14.117
14	#30	Liam Lawson	Red Bull Racing	+1:15.609
15	#87	Oliver Bearman	Haas F1 Team	+1:18.958
16	#31	Esteban Ocon	Haas F1 Team	+1 LAP
17	#23	Alexander Albon	Williams	+1 LAP
18	#11	Sergio Perez	Cadillac	+1 LAP
19	#77	Valtteri Bottas	Cadillac	+2 LAPS
DNF	#18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	-
DNF	#14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	-
DNF	#16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	-