Antonelli wins Italian Grand Prix from 19th on the grid, first Italian victory at Monza since 1966

Andrea Kimi Antonelli won his home Formula 1 race on Sunday after starting from 19th on the grid, the second-lowest starting position ever to produce a Grand Prix victory, and became the first Italian driver to win the Italian Grand Prix in 60 years.

The 20-year-old Mercedes driver passed teammate George Russell for the lead with four laps remaining at Monza, completing a recovery drive through a red-flagged, twice-restarted race to beat Russell by 3.857 seconds and extend his championship lead to 66 points. The last Italian to win at Monza was Ludovico Scarfiotti, in 1966.

The numbers

Antonelli finished the 53-lap race in 1 second over an hour, ahead of Russell in second and Max Verstappen, who took third for Red Bull, 14.718 seconds back. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri completed a McLaren double in fourth and fifth, with Lewis Hamilton sixth for Ferrari and Pierre Gasly seventh for Alpine after starting from an unexpected pole position. Arvid Lindblad, Franco Colapinto and Yuki Tsunoda rounded out the points-scoring top ten, according to the official classification published on Formula 1's 2026 season results archive.

The result was Antonelli's seventh victory of the 2026 season and lifted his tally to 267 points, 66 clear of Russell, who sits second on 201, according to standings compiled by Crash.net after the race. Charles Leclerc, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll failed to finish.

How the race unfolded

Antonelli's grid position was the product of a power-unit component change that triggered a penalty ahead of qualifying, dropping him to the back of the field for a race he had entered as the sport's championship leader. The race itself was disrupted almost immediately: Leclerc lost control of his Ferrari exiting the final corner on the second lap and crashed heavily into the barriers, prompting officials to first deploy the safety car and then red-flag the session so track repairs could be made. Leclerc was unhurt but climbed from the car visibly shaken, and the field lined up for a standing restart.

From there, Antonelli carved through traffic with a series of overtakes that carried him from the back of the pack into podium contention within the race's opening third, passing both Verstappen and Russell around the first chicane during that climb, according to The Race's account of the laps. A Virtual Safety Car period around the midpoint of the race proved decisive: Antonelli used the neutralized conditions to pit for fresh medium-compound tires while Russell, who was leading at the time, elected to stay out on a set of hards that had already done significant mileage.

That tire disparity set up a prolonged chase over the closing 20 laps. Russell's grip fell away as Antonelli closed in, and the pair traded position estimates over team radio as the gap shrank lap by lap. Antonelli ran wide through the first chicane late in the race, briefly running through the gravel trap, before recovering to complete the pass on the run between Lesmo 2 and the Ascari chicane, sealing the win in front of a home crowd, as reported by Formula 1's official race report.

Who is affected

The result reshapes the title picture with roughly a third of the season remaining. Antonelli's 66-point cushion over Russell, his own teammate, gives Mercedes control of both championships heading into the remaining rounds, while Verstappen's podium keeps Red Bull in the constructors' conversation but leaves him further off the pace in the drivers' standings. Ferrari's weekend was largely defined by Leclerc's crash and Hamilton's quiet run to sixth, a result that will add to scrutiny of the team's competitiveness at a circuit, and in a season, where it has struggled to match Mercedes and Red Bull. For Alpine, Gasly's pole and seventh-place finish, alongside Colapinto's points-paying ninth, represented one of the team's stronger weekends of the year.

For Antonelli himself, the victory carries weight beyond the championship table. He grew up outside Bologna and has spoken previously about Monza's place in Italian motorsport culture; winning the race that had not gone to an Italian driver since before his own father was born places him alongside a short list of national sporting figures.

Reaction

Antonelli described the win as barely believable in comments carried by Sky Sports and Formula 1's own coverage of the podium.

"Unbelievable! I'm so happy. 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."

He also addressed the moment he ran off track while chasing down Russell, telling reporters the surface gave way beneath him at the chicane. "It was quite scary there in the moment. The tarmac was breaking up but I still thought I could do the corner. But once I went over gravel I went straight and thought maybe I lost my chance. But luckily we still had the pace," Antonelli said, in remarks reported by both Sky Sports and Formula 1's official recap of the post-race press conference.

Verstappen, who had been vocal over team radio about his Red Bull's handling during the middle stint, finished third but out of contention for the win once the Mercedes pair pulled clear in the closing laps. Russell's team said afterward that the tire strategy gamble, staying out under the Virtual Safety Car rather than pitting alongside his teammate, had been the correct call in the moment but left him exposed once his rubber began to degrade in the final stint.

What happens next

The Formula 1 calendar does not pause for long. The series moves on to the next round with Antonelli carrying both the outright championship lead and the momentum of a result that will be replayed in Italy for years regardless of how the rest of the season unfolds. Mercedes, which locked out the podium's top two positions, will look to convert its current form into a run at the constructors' title as well, with Russell needing a shift in fortune to keep the drivers' fight competitive. Ferrari, meanwhile, faces questions about reliability and pace at a track that is effectively a home race for the team, questions that team principals are expected to address in the days ahead as preparations begin for the next event on the calendar.