Kimi Antonelli won at Monza from 19th, ending Italy's 60-year wait for a home hero
Sixty years after the last Italian won at Monza, Kimi Antonelli did it from nineteenth on the grid.
Some wins are good. This one was the stuff of scripts. Kimi Antonelli won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, from 19th on the grid, in front of a home crowd, and in doing so became the first Italian to win at the circuit in 60 years. He led a Mercedes one-two ahead of teammate George Russell, with Max Verstappen completing the podium, on the same Monza weekend that had already given Formula 1 a Lightning McQueen safety car. The fairytale, though, was entirely Antonelli's.
The comeback
The starting position tells you how unlikely this was. An engine penalty dropped Antonelli to 19th, so victory required carving almost the entire field. A first-lap crash for Charles Leclerc, under pressure from Oscar Piastri, brought out a red flag and a roughly half-hour stoppage, and the restart handed everyone free tyre changes, which helped. From there Antonelli simply drove through the order, taking the lead by lap 18 after passing both Verstappen and Russell. It was not clean or settled, because Monza's long straights and the cars' battery management produced a yo-yo of lead changes, and Russell twice took the position back. The decisive break came when a virtual safety car for Lance Stroll's retirement let Antonelli pit for fresh medium tyres while Russell stayed out on used hards. From there he controlled it, winning by 3.857 seconds.
The moment that nearly undid it
It almost went wrong at the worst possible time. Before his decisive move, Antonelli ran wide and nearly pitched his Mercedes into the gravel on one of Monza's high-speed stretches, a mistake that could have thrown the whole thing away. “That was pretty terrifying, because it was a straight stretch. I actually thought I had thrown away my chance,” he admitted afterwards. That he gathered it up and completed the pass moments later is exactly what separates a good drive from a great one.
History at Monza
The significance runs deeper than the points. No Italian had won at Monza since Ludovico Scarfiotti took victory here in 1966, a 60-year drought at the spiritual home of Italian motorsport, and Antonelli has finally ended it. There is a bittersweet edge for the home fans, because he did it in a Mercedes rather than a Ferrari, and Ferrari's own home race ended with Leclerc in the barriers on lap two and Lewis Hamilton only sixth. But an Italian winning at Monza is an Italian winning at Monza, and Antonelli felt every ounce of it. “I could never have imagined being here today, but we managed to pull it off,” he said. “It is a dream coming true.”
The championship
The title race is starting to look one-sided. Victory extends Antonelli's lead to 66 points over Russell, and after the way he has led this championship for months, a home win from 19th only strengthens the sense that this is becoming his season. Verstappen's third place was a solid recovery on a weekend that belonged to Mercedes, while Ferrari's difficult year continued in the most painful setting imaginable, another reminder that its problems run deeper than any single race, however good its car looks. The circus now heads to the Spanish Grand Prix at Madrid's new Madring, with Antonelli firmly in control.
AutoNext Take
This is one of those days that reminds you why the sport can be so intoxicating. A young Italian, at Monza, in front of his own people, winning from 19th on the grid and ending a drought that had lasted six decades, is about as complete a fairytale as Formula 1 produces. The near-miss in the gravel only sharpened it, because perfection is forgettable and a great drive rescued from the edge of disaster is not. Antonelli will remember this one for the rest of his life, and so will everyone who watched it.
The only sadness is a familiar one, and it is red. Monza is Ferrari's cathedral, and the Italian who finally won there was wearing silver while the Scuderia's home weekend collapsed on the second lap. That is the story of Ferrari's season in miniature, a proud name watching others take the moments it wants most. For Antonelli, though, there is nothing but upside. He has the win of a lifetime, a 66-point cushion, and a championship that increasingly looks like his to lose. On this evidence, he will not lose it.
