Kimi Antonelli produced a stunning fightback at his home Italian Grand Prix on Sunday, charging from 19th on the grid to victory and strengthening his bid to become the youngest Formula 1 world champion in history.
The Mercedes driver needed fewer than 17 laps to fight his way to the front before engaging in a prolonged battle with teammate and championship rival George Russell for the lead.
Antonelli made the decisive move with three laps remaining, overtaking Russell for the final time before crossing the finish line to become the first Italian to win the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in 60 years.
The victory marked a remarkable turnaround for the 20-year-old, who had started 17 places behind Russell but finished ahead of his Mercedes teammate, with Max Verstappen of Red Bull taking third.
Antonelli’s triumph also ended Italy’s long wait for a home winner at Monza, with Ludovico Scarfiotti having been the last Italian to achieve the feat in 1966.
Only one driver has previously won an F1 race after starting further back on the grid — John Watson, who came from 22nd to win the 1983 Long Beach Grand Prix.
The victory further underlined Antonelli’s emergence as one of Formula 1’s leading young talents. In only his second season in the sport, the Bologna-born driver has combined outright pace with increasingly impressive race management and overtaking ability.
Antonelli has now won half of the season’s races and leads the 2026 F1 Drivers’ Championship by 59 points.
His victory was particularly remarkable given that Mercedes had been forced to install a new engine before the Monza race after the team had exhausted his permitted allocation of power-unit components, triggering a grid penalty that sent him to the back.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff had defended the decision to take the penalty at Monza, saying the team’s “algorithms don’t take nationality into consideration”.
The strategy appeared costly before the race, with Antonelli’s chances of winning dropping sharply in pre-race betting markets. But the Italian delivered one of the standout drives of the season in front of an ecstatic home crowd.
The result means Antonelli has now finished on the podium in 10 of 12 races this season and further strengthens his position at the top of the championship.
For the passionate Monza crowd, the victory was a historic moment as Antonelli became the first Italian driver in six decades to stand on the top step at the iconic circuit.
The result also denied Ferrari a home victory, with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton unable to deliver a win for the Scuderia in front of the tifosi.
