Antonelli ends 60 year wait for home winner at Italian GP with magical drive from 19th

Kimi Antonelli claimed a spectacular victory at the Italian Grand Prix from 19th on the grid after a late charge to defeat teammate George Russell and extend his championship lead.

Antonelli, the first Italian to win his home race in six decades, had his victory set up in part by a massive second-lap crash for Ferrari favorite Charles Leclerc, triggering a lengthy red flag that redirected the course of the grand prix.

Leclerc had been defending third place from Oscar Piastri at Parabolica when he got too happy on the throttle, spitting his car off the road and into the barrier at high speed in a heavy impact almost identical to his shunt at the same place in 2020.

The Monegasque walked away from his heavily damaged car uninjured, but a half-hour suspension was required to repair the tire barriers.

Russell took the restart from pole, but more impressive than his one-place gain was the rise of Antonelli, who lined up 12th, up from 19th after his engine change penalty.

His gutsy first lap was surpassed by a dazzling restart that had him up another five places by the end of lap 8, and by lap 13 he was up to third place and eyeing the lead.

By then, however, Max Verstappen had taken the lead, having taken the restart third and having made short work of Gasly, who plummeted back into the midfield.

Verstappen’s staunch defending prevented Russell from breaking away early, accelerating Antonelli’s joining of the battle for victory.

Russell broke Verstappen’s defenses on lap 15 with better battery deployment through Curva Grande, but Antonelli muscled past the Dutchman one lap later to keep his teammate in his sights.

A great exit from Parabolica at the end of lap 17 gave him the slingshot he needed to make the remarkable move for the lead, completing an 18-place rise.

Russell wasn’t going to be upstaged so easily, however, and the pair engaged in a memorable and increasingly fraught duel that saw them trade the lead five times in as many laps.

Both drivers had to become increasingly creative in the way they diced, with Russell even defending the lead from the outside line at Curva Grande in a bid to baulk Antonelli’s momentum. The Italian came perilously close to rear-ending the sister car but darted to the right to sweep around the outside at the Roggia chicane to take the lead.

Russell got him back on lap 23, and by now their battling had allowed Verstappen to ease his way back into the battle. Mercedes took the chance to call off the fight, telling Antonelli to halt his attack until both cars had built a buffer to the Dutchman.

Antonelli reluctantly agreed, but he was shortly afterwards taken out of the battle anyway by a virtual safety car for Lance Stroll’s stopped Aston Martin, giving him a chance to make a cheap pit stop.

The Italian had started the race on the hard tire whereas Russell had started on the mediums. It meant Russell could take the hard at the red flag and run to the finish, whereas Antonelli was forced to stop again, taking two sets of mediums to the end.

The cheap stop dropped him to sixth, 15.5s off the lead, but he made ferocious progress in a bid to recover lost ground.

He passed Gasly and Norris easily, and an off for Hamilton got him up to P3 on lap 35. Piastri was easy pickings down the front straight at the beginning of lap 37.

With 17 laps to go, Antonelli had 8.8s to close for victory.

He made steady progress early, but when Russell was told he could push his hard tires a little harder to stave off the charge, Antonelli’s momentum stalled.

It was only momentary, however, and by lap 42 Russell radioed that his ageing rubber was beginning to open up.

His pace dropped precipitously, and on lap 48 Antonelli was on his tail and sizing up a move.

His first attempt came on lap 49 at the first chicane, where Russell ran deep on the brakes. Antonelli appeared to have an easy move, but the 20-year-old’s line was compromised, and he steered himself into the stones on exit, allowing Russell to keep the place.

It was only a brief reprieve for the Briton, however. Antonelli, in fearsome form, recovered to blast past his teammate out of the second Lesmo, taking the lead long before Ascari to a mighty roar of the partisan home crowd.

He put 1s on Russell by the end of the lap to put the victory beyond doubt, and with a flourish he set the fastest lap of the race on the final tour to storm to a championship-defining victory, the first for an Italian at home since Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966.

“I did not expect it,” he said. “Unbelievable. I’m so happy.

“I could have never imagined to be here today. We managed to pull it off, and I’m really, really happy.”

His comeback from 19th is the second-biggest recovery in grand prix history, eclipsed only by John Watson’s victory from 22nd on the grid at the 1983 United States Grand Prix.

His seventh win is the 50th for an Italian driver, and it puts him outright second on the list of Italians by victories, behind only two-time champion Alberto Ascari, with 13 — and extends his championship lead to 66 points.

“It’s a dream coming true,” he said. “What an incredible day.

“Still a few races to go, so we’ve got to keep our head down, but now we’re going to enjoy today.”

Russell was magnanimous in defeat despite his clear disappointment.

“Huge congrats to Kimi,” he said. “Incredible result from him.

“When I looked on the leaderboard at the beginning and saw he was already P5, P4, I knew straight away he was going to be in the mix.

“Of course I would’ve loved to have been P1 today.

“In the end Kimi had great pace — and there we are.

Verstappen couldn’t follow Antonelli up the field after his pit stop but recovered to a strong third in a lonely end to the race.

“There were some good battles out there,” he said.

“I just tried to hang in there, but they were a bit too fast. That’s why I just tried to be in overtake mode, but at one point I lost that and tried to just do my own race.”

Lando Norris pipped Oscar Piastri for fourth on the final lap after both demoted Lewis Hamilton to sixth on a miserable day for Ferrari.

Pole-getter Gasly finished seventh ahead of Arvid Lindblad, Franco Colapinto and Yuki Tsunoda.

Gabriel Bortoleto, Nico Hulkenberg, Carlos Sainz, Liam Lawson, Oliver Bearman, Esteban Ocon, Alex Albon, Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas completed the non-points finishers, with Stroll and Fernando Alonso joining Leclerc on the retirement list.

RESULTS