Dream Monaco weekend complete, Antonelli already looking ahead

Kimi Antonelli says he has a long way to go to become world champion this season despite opening up a 66-point advantage in the standings with victory at the Monaco Grand Prix.

The win in Monaco is Antonelli’s fifth in a row, with all of those victories coming from his first in Formula 1 at the Chinese Grand Prix. In Monaco, a stunning pole position lap provided the foundation for a dominant victory, and with George Russell failing to score it is now Lewis Hamilton in second place in the drivers’ championship, 66 points adrift.

RACE REPORT: Antonelli masterclass leaves Monaco chaos far behind

“The job’s not finished,” Antonelli said. “It’s still a long season and we’ve got to keep pushing, keep raising the bar. And the goal is to keep performing like this. The team is doing an incredible job. They’ve given us an incredible car and I’ve got so much support from the team as well, from my family. So it’s a really good moment so far.

“It’s been an incredible weekend, incredible race. It was one of those days where we had so incredible pace and it was just coming all so natural. And the car was feeling incredible and it just was giving me the confidence to push. So it was a very enjoyable day.”

Antonelli says he did not expected to have such a performance advantage on Sunday, although he did not face a challenge from Max Verstappen, who failed to get away from the grid with a power unit issue.

“I was surprised by the pace, but today I just felt really one with the car and I was just able to set a good rhythm with high intensity and the car was responding really well," he said. "So definitely I was surprised, but it was just one of those days where everything clicks.”

The 19-year-old enjoyed a relatively untroubled run to the finish despite a late race restart after a red flag period, and he admits he was ruing his luck when a standing start was announced as he feared Ferrari’s potential to get off the line quickly.

“Big time I was frustrated, because Lewis was starting next to me this time and knowing how good they start, I was like… well, I cannot say, I’m going to say a bad word! But I was like, ‘Oh man.’ But luckily, the start went OK. Also, he had a lot of wheelspin, so that also made my life a little bit easier into Turn 1. But it was not easy to refocus after the red flag.”