Antonelli takes sensational home Italian GP win from back of grid

Kimi Antonelli turned a 19th-place start into a sensational home victory at Monza, winning the Italian Grand Prix and dealing a major blow to his closest championship rival, Mercedes teammate George Russell.

Russell finished 3.857 seconds behind after leading the restart following Charles Leclerc’s heavy crash at the end of the second lap. Max Verstappen finished a distant third for Red Bull. Antonelli’s win extended his championship advantage over Russell from 59 points to 66 after 13 rounds.

The 20-year-old became the first Italian to win at Monza since Ferrari’s Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966. He repeatedly exchanged the lead with Russell before pitting during a virtual safety car period while Russell stayed out. Antonelli then cut an 8.9-second gap to less than a second in 10 laps.

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I am so happy and I could have never imagined to be here today. But we managed to pull it off and I'm really, really happy.

His charge appeared to falter when he went into the gravel while trying to pass with four laps remaining. He recovered, retook the lead on lap 51 of 53 and pulled away. “I am so happy and I could have never imagined to be here today. But we managed to pull it off and I'm really, really happy,” Antonelli said after taking his seventh win of the season.

Russell said his tyres left him unable to fight back after completing the race on one hard tyre. Lando Norris finished fourth for McLaren, ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri. Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was sixth, while Pierre Gasly, Arvid Lindblad, Franco Colapinto and Yuki Tsunoda completed the top 10.

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It was looking like a pretty strong race from us, and then I was just struggling with the tyres towards the end. Obviously, we did the whole race on that one hard tyre.