Antonelli overjoyed after incredible home win at Italian GP: "Unbelievable'
Photo: Race Pictures
Updated:
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Henry Eccles is a freelance Formula 1 journalist for GPblog, covering breaking news, live race blogs, and features across the F1 calendar. Since joining in 2026, he has produced high-volume reporting on the sport’s biggest stories, alongside feature pieces including analysis and historical content.
Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli has surprised even himself with victory from P19 at the Italian GP. The 20-year-old started at the back of the grid following an engine penalty but pulled off a sensational drive to become the first Italian winner at Monza since Ludovico Scarfiotti for Ferrari in 1966.
After just 18 laps, the Italian had made 18 places - following a shock Charles Leclerc DNF on Lap 2. Antonelli eventually overtook his teammate George Russell on Lap 50 of 53 to take the win, meaning he now leads the F1 Drivers' standings by 66 points
Speaking immediately post-race, Antonelli was overjoyed with the win. He said: "Unbelievable! I am so happy and I could have never imagined to be here today. But we managed to pull it off and I'm really, really happy."
Antonelli addresses late scare against Russell
Photo: Race Pictures
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In his late pursuit of Russell, the young Italian slid onto the gravel after crossing broken up tarmac at Turn 2, but that was not enough to stop him from taking a historic win.
On that brief scare, Antonelli added: "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 a bit of gravel as well I went straight and I was like 'maybe I lost my chance'. But luckily we still had the pace and managed to bring it home."
His teammate Russell, although disappointed to miss out on what would have been a crucial win, congratulated his teammate:
“Huge congrats to Kimi. Incredible result from him. When I looked at the leaderboard in the beginning I saw he was already in P5, P4, I knew straight away he was going to be in the mix. Huge congrats to him.
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“I’ll take it. It’s been ore positive than it was pre-summer break, and that’s what I needed to try to achieve, but of course I would have loved to have been P1 today."
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