The Monza race on September 6th didn’t start as usual. New drivers got the spotlight: Pierre Gasly of Alpine finally made his first pole position in his career. Two Ferrari drivers collided right after the start, prompting a red flag and forcing Leclerc to abandon the race. And the championship leader, Kimi Antonelli, had a bad qualifying on Saturday (leaving in Q1), starting the race in 18th position.
However, once the race resumed after Leclerc’s incident, Antonelli began a remarkable comeback. By lap 18, he took the lead, followed by his teammate George Russell in second place, and Max Verstappen in third. The podium remained the same until the end of the race, securing a home win for Kimi that ended the 60-year wait for an Italian home race victory.
Kimi Antonelli’s performance in this race exemplifies the driver’s brilliance throughout the 2026 season. He delivered a historic home victory and proved his race strategy, which helped him write an incredible trajectory over the season.
Here are some highlights from the championship-leader year!
A great start
Kimi began his record-breaking momentum way before 2026. In 2025, his first season ever, Antonelli became the second-youngest driver ever to score points in a race at only 18 years, seven months, and eleven days. That same year, he also became the youngest driver to lead a race, back in April in Japan.
However, the road ahead was not easy for him. Antonelli joined Mercedes under huge pressure from the public and the media, once he was tasked with filling the seat left vacant by Lewis Hamilton’s at the end of the 2024 season.
Despite a promising start to the season, Kimi’s performance dropped once the European leg of the competition got underway. He got himself into many incidents (even in a collision that knocked Max Verstappen out of the race), culminating in an emotional post-qualifying interview at the Belgian GP where he broke down in tears:
Back stronger than ever
Antonelli’s 2026 highlights started at the Chinese Grand Prix, back in March. The Mercedes driver took pole position in qualifying. As a result, Kimi became the youngest driver in Formula One’s (F1) history to get a pole position in a Grand Prix. He was only 19 years old at the time! Shanghai’s Circuit was also the place where Kimi got his first victory, ending a 20-year wait for an Italian driver to win an F1 race.
However, Kimi Antonelli’s breakthrough came with the Japanese Grand Prix. Antonelli had an unfortunate start, losing pole position by the first lap. After an incident with Franco Colapinto (Alpine driver), Kimi gained positions and conducted the race until its end, conquering enough points to lead the World Championship, becoming the youngest driver in Formula One’s history to ever do such a thing.
Six in a row!
After China and Japan, Kimi Antonelli also won the Australian, Canadian, and Monaco races, a total spree of six victories!! By Canada, Kimi was already the only driver in the history of Formula One to start his career with four race wins in a row. However, Monaco was a big change.
King of Monaco?
On June 7th, at the Monaco Grand Prix, Antonelli started in pole position, followed by big names in F1: Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. Still, Kimi kept the lead. The Mercedes prodigy emerged as the youngest driver to win on the Monaco streets and also claimed his very first Grand Slam with pole position, leading every lap and securing the race’s fastest lap.
Grand Slam (or Grand Chelem) is when the driver gets pole position, secures the race’s fastest lap, leads every lap, and wins the race.
With his victory, Kimi stood out as the 28º driver in F1 history to claim a Grand Chelem, also being the third to do so in the last three years. Mika Häkkinen was the last driver to claim the Grand Slam in Monaco, back in 1998. Almost 28 years later, a 19-year-old driver repeated it
The Monza hero
And finally, Monza. In an article for the official Formula One site, the former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer described Antonelli’s win as a “crowning moment”:
“He delivered the second greatest Grand Prix comeback in the sport’s history, behind only John Watson’s win from 22nd in the 1983 USA West Grand Prix.”
Besides his talent, Toto Wolff’s prodigy son (aka Kimi Antonelli) pulled off a ‘true miracle victory’, thanks to the failures of other drivers. By the first suspension caused by Charles Leclerc’s crash, Kimi was already in 12th place. With the restart and new medium tyres, he climbed another four grid places, beating his teammate George Russell, the oneleading the race.
A few laps later, Lance Stroll activated the Virtual Safety Car after his crash. With Russell losing pace as his tires aged, Antonelli gained positions and soon overtook his teammate to win the race. In the end, the tire decision (changing from hard to medium ones) really opened a decisive advantage over Russell, who finished second.
Funny enough, not even the Mercedes algorithms predicted Kimi’s victory:
“These are the moments where you can see how a weekend is panning out through the sessions that a special moment can come. When a driver and a car are one, then there’s nothing that can stop them,” Toto Wolff, Mercedes’ director, said in an interview for the official F1 press.
Also, at Monza, Antonelli equaled Russell’s F1 tally: seven victories.
Such a defining moment for an Italian teenage driver who ended Italy’s 60-year wait with a home-race victory.
For the Future?
Just by the halfway point of the season, Kimi Antonelli is making history! If he continues leading the World Championship standings, he can become the youngest driver to ever – in the entire F1 history – win the championship. But one thing is true: Antonelli is defining a new generation of drivers who, besides strategy and technology, really trust their car and abilities – making the most of it!
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The article above was edited by Maria Eduarda Sapia Moreno
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