Kimi Antonelli after historic Monza victory: “That was terrifying”

In the end, there were plenty of tears at the Royal Park. Kimi Antonelli had won his home race. The World Championship leader drove his Mercedes to victory from 19th on the grid, achieving what no Italian had managed for 60 years – a Ferrari win on the high-speed Monza circuit.

Antonelli gushed after the race: “Unbelievable – I didn’t think I’d be able to stand here despite the penalties. But we’ve done it and I’m really, really happy!” When asked about his brief excursion into the gravel trap – which he had undertaken before the decisive overtaking manoeuvre on his team-mate to take the lead for good – he explained: “That was pretty terrifying, because it was a straight stretch. I actually thought I’d thrown away my chance, but luckily we had the pace to get back to the front.”

How the race unfolded:

At Monza, there was a first on race Sunday even before the start: for the first time in his career, Pierre Gasly led the field on the warm-up lap. The Frenchman from the Alpine team had secured pole position for the Italian Grand Prix with a strong performance and a bit of luck. It was the first Grand Prix pole of his Formula 1 career, which began in 2017 with the Toro Rosso team (now Visa Cash App Racing Bulls).

No sooner had the start lights gone out than the action heated up. Gasly managed to defend his lead against his neighbour George Russell in the opening metres, whilst behind them the Ferrari stars Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton came very close together in the battle for third place, with the Monegasque driver forcing his team-mate into the gravel trap.

The seven-time champion subsequently lost all his grip and was overtaken; the race stewards took note of the incident but ultimately decided against a closer investigation. At the front, Russell managed to get past Gasly at the end of the first lap, becoming the new leader. Leclerc also seemed initially able to overtake the Alpine, but before the second chicane, Gasly managed to get back past the red car.

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A bitter disappointment for the Tifosi

Things went even worse for Leclerc, as the 28-year-old Ferrari star was subsequently put under pressure by Oscar Piastri in the McLaren. The nine-time Grand Prix winner slammed on the brakes, strayed onto the white line marking the track boundary and spun off the track at high speed. The Monte Carlo driver’s Ferrari rattled through the gravel trap at the Parabolica and crashed into the tyre barriers. Nico Rosberg commented: “It’s quite simple,

After race control initially sent the safety car onto the track, the race was halted to repair the damage to the track barrier. The order before the red flag was: Russell ahead of Gasly, Max Verstappen, Franco Colapinto, Piastri, Lando Norris, Arvid Lindblad, Lewis Hamilton, Ollie Bearman, Esteban Ocon, Gabriel Bortoleto, Kimi Antonelli, Nico Hülkenberg, Yuki Tsunoda, Liam Lawson, Carlos Sainz, Sergio Pérez, Alex Albon, Valtteri Bottas, Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso.

The enforced break lasted just under half an hour, after which the race resumed with a standing start. Even before the restart, Ferrari announced that Leclerc had been given the all-clear following a brief visit to the medical centre. Fortunately, he emerged unscathed from the violent impact.

The rest of the field set off to line up on the grid for a standing start. However, because Lawson’s replacement, Tsunoda, failed to line up correctly in his starting position, another formation lap was completed. After that, the race finally restarted and Russell defended his lead at the front. Behind him, Verstappen was overtaken by Colapinto and dropped to fourth place; however, shortly afterwards, the Argentine drove through the gravel trap at the Lesmo chicane and fell far back again.

Max Verstappen briefly takes the lead

Things went much better for Hamilton and Antonelli. The seven-time champion moved up from eighth to fifth, whilst the championship leader worked his way up from twelfth to sixth. Verstappen also gained a place, overtaking Gasly to move into second. Defending champion Norris also provided some excitement by attacking Antonelli on the eighth lap of the race. However, the Briton was unable to get past the Mercedes star.

At the front, Verstappen was chasing race leader Russell, whom he refused to let pull away, whilst Hamilton had the Tifosi cheering as he overtook Gasly to move into third place. As the stewards announced an investigation into Tsunoda, cheers rang out once more through the Royal Park. This was because, on lap 12, Verstappen managed to get past Russell to take the lead. Further back, Hamilton came under pressure and was forced to yield twice: first, Piastri got past the record Grand Prix winner, then Antonelli also overtook the Briton.

Verstappen held the lead for only a few kilometres before Russell managed to get past the Red Bull Racing star again on lap 17. Shortly before that, Hamilton had run wide off the track. Whilst Verstappen reported a problem over the radio, Antonelli managed to get past him to move into second place; shortly afterwards, he took the lead from his team-mate Russell.

Lance Stroll retires his Aston Martin

In the following laps, the Mercedes drivers managed to pull away slightly from Verstappen, after which they swapped the lead several times. Piastri and Hamilton also swapped positions several times, with the Australian and the Briton battling for fourth place.

At the other end of the field, Stroll pulled his Aston Martin over to the side of the track, triggering a virtual safety car period which several drivers used to make tyre changes. These included both Antonelli and Verstappen, who pitted on lap 28 and were served in 2.7 seconds. Before Stroll, Fernando Alonso had already ended his race prematurely.

Antonelli lost no time on the medium tyres and immediately overtook Gasly. Two laps later, he managed to overtake world champion Norris as well. Verstappen also initially overtook Gasly and then set his sights on Norris, whom he overtook one lap after the young Italian. The next driver in line to be overtaken was Hamilton. And when the former champion made a mistake, his Mercedes successor Antonelli saw his chance and pulled past.

Russell had a brief scare as he was suspected of breaching the yellow flag rules, but the stewards decided against imposing a penalty.Whilst the Briton led ahead of Antonelli, behind the Mercedes duo, Verstappen took third place on lap 43 by overtaking Piastri.

In the final laps, the chase by Antonelli – who was later forced to pit – to catch up with his team-mate provided plenty of excitement. Russell was warned that the 20-year-old could catch him just before the chequered flag. Antonelli made his move on lap 48, but ended up in the gravel. Shortly before that, Norris had overtaken his team-mate Piastri and was now running in fourth place.

On lap 50, his manoeuvre against his own team-mate paid off and Antonelli took the lead. The McLaren duo were also going at it hard, with Norris rattling through the grass during their duel. Shortly before the end, he overtook Piastri to move into fourth place. There were no further changes at the front, with Antonelli winning his home race ahead of Russell and Verstappen.