Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli claimed an unlikely win Sunday (Sept. 6), starting at the rear due to an engine change and further demoralized teammate George Russell’s hopes, in the Pirelli Italian Grand Prix. Antonelli’s race-long pursuit of the lead culminated with a pass for the lead over Russell with two laps left, which followed a near-disastrous trip off the track in an earlier attempt for the lead.
Calling Russell’s second-place finish “disappointing” is a massive understatement in a race that the Brit led after one lap, with his aspirations for making a huge dent in his teammate’s lead vanishing quickly with Antonelli’s early assault from the back.
“Unbelievable! I’m so happy,” said Antonelli. “I could never have imagined to be here today, but we managed to pull it off. It’s a dream coming true. What an incredible day. I couldn’t do it without my team, family and everyone who supports me. Still a few races to go, so we’re going to keep our head down, but now we’re going to enjoy today.”
Antonelli’s stunning victory marked the first by an Italian driver at Monza in 60 years.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc crashed heavily into the barriers on lap 2, leading to a red flag for cleanup that lasted 30 minutes.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was third, McLaren’s Lando Norris was fourth with teammate Oscar Piastri fifth after the two scrapped late for position. Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was sixth, with surprise polesitter Pierre Gasly bringing his Alpine home seventh. Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad was eighth, Alpine’s Franco Colapinto was ninth and Racing Bulls substitute Yuki Tsunoda placed 10th,
In the driver standings, Antonelli leads Russell by 66 points, 267 to 201. Hamilton is third with 191.
In the constructors’ standings, Mercedes leads Ferrari 468 to 346. McLaren is third with 287 points.
The Race
Pole-sitter Gasly had no trouble holding position into turn 1 while the Ferraris of Hamilton and Leclerc made contact, with Leclerc forcing his teammate wide into turn 2. Hamilton dropped to 10th. Antonelli was up to 13th after one lap.
Russell easily cleared Gasly on the front straight on lap 2, and Leclerc followed suit by clearing the Alpine. But Leclerc crashed hard into the barrier when his back end stepped out exiting the Parabolica chicane. The safety car was sent out briefly, then the race was red-flagged to extract Leclerc’s car and repair the barrier.
On the second restart, Russell held the lead, while Colapinto lost 10 positions when he ran into the gravel at the Lesmo corners. Antonelli was now all the way up to sixth and very much on schedule to minimize the damage from starting last.
Verstappen blew by Russell on lap 12 for the lead, while Antonelli overtook Hamilton for fourth and Piastri for third. With his teammate fast approaching, Russell faced the demoralizing thought of making no gains at all in the Drivers’ Championship.
Antonelli slipped past Russell for the lead on lap 18 and the Italian teenager now led his home Grand Prix. Russell reclaimed the lead on lap 20, only for Antonelli to immediately strike back. The situation surely gave Toto Wolff a feeling of equal parts elation and worry.
Antonelli and Verstappen pitted on lap 29 from second under a virtual safety car (VSC) period called for Lance Stroll’s stalled Aston Martin, Antonelli for mediums and Verstappen for hards, easing the pressure, for now, on Russell, who led with a six-second cushion over Piastri.
With 18 laps left, Antonelli, in fourth, was 10 seconds back of Russell in first. With Antonelli charging, Russell received the disturbing news that he was under investigation for a yellow flag infringement during the earlier VSC period.
With 10 laps left, Antonelli was seven seconds behind his teammate. And word came down that Russell would face no discipline.
Russell complained of his very worn tires “opening up,” and it showed in the lap times, with Antonelli only three seconds down with eight laps left. Antonelli overtaking for the lead appeared inevitable.
Antonelli briefly took the lead on lap 49, but he went wide and into the gravel, and was lucky to keep his momentum. Despite the setback, he was able to quickly regroup and was back in Russell’s mirrors in no time. On lap 51, Antonelli took the lead into the Ascari chicane. The young Italian then pulled away and took the checkered flag with a four-second cushion over Russell.
The Bad
With Antonelli starting at the back of the grid due to an engine change, Russell (starting second) had another chance to take a huge chunk from Antonelli’s championship lead. Such a scenario is akin to being presented with a golden opportunity on a silver platter.
Not winning is, of course, disappointing to Russell, and finishing second to Antonelli is even more disappointing. But what may be most disappointing is the fact that Russell did nothing to lose the race. In fact, he did everything to win the race if not for the presence of his teammate.
Now, Russell trails Antonelli by 66 points, and he will likely not be gifted the type of situation he faced at Monza (starting 17 places ahead of Antonelli) in future races. Antonelli’s engine change and resulting grid penalties are in the past; Russell will face the ramifications of his own engine change in the near future.
The Briton could conceivably make a charge in the standings, but he would need an unprecedented run of engine issues or failures for Antonelli. The only problem with that hypothetical is that Russell drives essentially the same car; he would likely experience the same issues should those issues hinder his teammate.
Russell may now have to face the ignominy of racing the rest of the season for the good of the team, as opposed to his own personal game. His deficit in the drivers’ standings means he’s basically lost the right to answer “No” to future team orders.
The over-Disney-fication of F1 continues with the recent announcement that Disney and the series have extended their partnership through 2028. That means more collaboration and crossovers between the two brands, like the Cars movie franchise debut at Monza, where Lightning McQueen took a lap around the track.
This could very well mean there will be Cars characters voiced by current F1 drivers in future films, following in the footsteps of F1 greats Mario Andretti and Michael Schumacher, who had roles in the original 2006 film. Let’s all pray that it doesn’t go too far and allow the voice of Larry The Cable Guy to be heard anywhere near Formula 1, lest the cryogenically frozen corpse of Walt Disney roll over in whatever chamber houses it.
Speaking of “Mickey Mouse organizations,” the FIA stripped Gasly of his Monaco podium on Friday (Sept. 4), a full 89 days after he finished third in the Monaco Grand Prix on June 7. Gasly had finished third on the track, but was demoted after the application of penalties for minor pit lane speeding infractions.
Gasly was originally penalized after the race; Alpine appealed, and Gasly was reinstated to third, only to have it snatched away three months later, when McLaren and Red Bull protested. The decision that demoted Gasly also elevated Isack Hadjar to third and Piastri to fourth. The FIA’s decision infuriated Alpine team principal Flavio Briatore, who was blind to the irony of him complaining that someone else received preferential treatment. By the way, if “101 Dalmatians” villainess Cruella de Vil was a man and involved in F1, she would be Flavio Briatore.
The FIA’s decision seems unduly unfair, not only because of the length of time between their decisions, but also because it appears they were influenced by Red Bull and McLaren, oddly enough, the two teams that benefited from their final ruling. Does Alpine have any recourse? Can they appeal? If they can, should they wait three months and then do so?
Did someone in the FIA make the following suggestion: “Let’s take the most controversial aspect of virtual assistant replay in soccer and apply it to F1?”
It was a heartbreaking end to the race at Monza for Leclerc, who was running third at the time, and more importantly for his psyche, running well ahead of his teammate Hamilton. Reaction shots of the Monza crowd showed several Ferrari fans in utter despair, with many in tears and being consoled in the arms of their parents.
The Good
It was a hugely successful day for Alpine, despite Gasly’s chance for an unlikely win evaporating early. Briatore stated before the race that the collective goal was for both cars to finish in the points, implying that an Alpine victory was a virtual impossibility. It may be the most true statement Briatore has ever made. It may be the only true statement Briatore’s ever made.
True to Briatore’s wishes, both Alpine drivers scored, with Gasly and Colapinto finishing seventh and ninth, respectively. It’s easy to root for Alpine if you can ignore Briatore’s connection to the team.
Speaking of Disney-F1 promotions, Verstappen is scheduled to race against 100 karters at Silverstone on Sept. 16, live and exclusively on Disney+. So subscribe, right now (Disney’s words, not mine). This is a Disney-F1 crossover I can get behind.
Among Verstappen’s rivals will be celebrities, Red Bull athletes, influencers, and everyday fans. In other words, weak competition. Come on, race organizers, there has to be a plumber out there, maybe two, who have an odd coterie of friends and enemies with the driving skills and dirty tactics to really challenge Verstappen. And all just happen to be expert karters. This calls for no less than an emergency collaboration between F1 and Nintendo.
The Italian Grand Prix provided all the drama a fan could ask for: multiple standing starts, a red flag, a safety car, a VSC, a massive shunt, and some of the most exciting racing seen this season, for the lead and for other positions as well. The two Ferraris nearly wrecked each other early in the race, and the two McLarens nearly followed suit later on.
The Antonelli-Russell battles provided double the fun. It was awesome to witness the two locked in a back-and-forth battle for the lead over several laps. It was also just as exciting after Antonelli’s second pit stop, when the drama is in watching the clock to see the deficit between the two cars decreasing at every lap, knowing that incredible racing awaits once that number gets to less than one second.
F1 TV Broadcast Critique
Juan Pablo Montoya and Davide Valsecchi have great chemistry, whether it be taking hot laps in a McLaren supercar or having a running conversation on the Monza “Grid Walk.”
In this age of the alternate broadcast of various sporting events, F1 TV should establish an alternate race broadcast in which Montoya and Valsecchi offer unfiltered and impromptu commentary of the race. It can’t fail. There’s only one reason I wouldn’t watch this, and that’s if Pat McAfee was in any way a part of it.
The Driver
Antonelli charged from starting at the back of the grid to challenging for the win. That’s impressive in its own right, but Antonelli made it look easy. Three laps into the race, the championship leader was already into points position.
Then the deliberate and patient stalking of the lead began. And a brilliant call to pit under the VSC set the stage for Antonelli to use his fresh medium tires to slowly trim the gap to Russell, on hard tires since lap 2.
Antonelli briefly lost his sense of patience when he lunged for the pass and drove into the gravel. But he regained his composure, didn’t panic or overdrive and was quickly able to make an easy pass for the lead.
Antonelli all but locked up the drivers’ title with his win, and although his career is just beginning, his Monza win stands as his signature win to date. He might as well start adding “2026 Formula 1 World Champion” to his signature.
F1 Glossary Word Of The Day
Gravel Trap: a gravel-filled area located between the racing area and barriers, used to slow cars that run off the racing line and prevent them from contacting the barriers at high speed. Unofficially known as the “kitty litter,” spending too much time here means you drive like dog “S.”
The Results (Pirelli Italian Grand Prix, Autodromo Nazionale Monza)
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Team | Laps | Time / Retired | Pts. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 53 | 1:51:15.281 | 25 |
| 2 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 53 | +3.857s | 18 |
| 3 | 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing | 53 | +14.718s | 15 |
| 4 | 1 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 53 | +19.056s | 12 |
| 5 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 53 | +19.253s | 10 |
| 6 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 53 | +24.655s | 8 |
| 7 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 53 | +27.351s | 6 |
| 8 | 41 | Arvid Lindblad | Racing Bulls | 53 | +45.136s | 4 |
| 9 | 43 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | 53 | +47.353s | 2 |
| 10 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | Racing Bulls | 53 | +58.187s | 1 |
| 11 | 5 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Audi | 53 | +65.187s | 0 |
| 12 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Audi | 53 | +66.187s | 0 |
| 13 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | 53 | +74.117s | 0 |
| 14 | 30 | Liam Lawson | Red Bull Racing | 53 | +75.609s | 0 |
| 15 | 87 | Oliver Bearman | Haas F1 Team | 53 | +78.958s | 0 |
| 16 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Haas F1 Team | 52 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 17 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams | 52 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 18 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Cadillac | 52 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 19 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Cadillac | 51 | +2 laps | 0 |
| NC | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 26 | DNF | 0 |
| NC | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 23 | DNF | 0 |
| NC | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1 | DNF | 0 |
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