Formula One leader Kimi Antonelli won his home Italian Grand Prix after a sensational race from 19th to first on Sunday in a massive blow for Mercedes teammate and closest championship rival George Russell.
The 20-year-old was the first Italian winner at Monza since Ludovico Scarfiotti for Ferrari in 1966.
Russell, who had led a re-start after Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc crashed heavily at the end of lap two, finished second — 3.857 seconds behind — after being hunted down by a teammate on fresher tyres late in the race with Max Verstappen a distant third for Red Bull.
The Briton had hoped to slash Antonelli’s 59-point lead
after the Italian took an engine penalty and lined up on the
back row of the grid, with two other drivers starting in the
pitlane, but instead ended up 66 adrift after 13 rounds.
“Oh my god, oh my god,” screamed Antonelli over the team
radio as he took the chequered flag as a winner for the seventh
time this season and gave the crowd something to celebrate after
Ferrari failed to make the podium.
“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,” he said later, after stepping out onto the podium to
huge cheers.
The Italian, who swapped the lead repeatedly with Russell
before pitting during a virtual safety car period while Russell
stayed out, cut an 8.9 second gap to less than a second in 10
laps but then appeared to have wasted his efforts.
Trying to pass, Antonelli went into the gravel with four
laps to go but still came back and took back the lead on lap 51
of 53 before pulling away.
“Our Italian hero. So deserved. That was a fantastic lap. I
hated the last one, but it was fantastic,” commented Mercedes
team boss Toto Wolff over the team radio after the flag.
Russell said he did not have the tyres to fight back.
“It was looking like a pretty strong race from us, and then
I was just struggling with the tyres towards the end. Obviously,
we did the whole race on that one hard tyre,” he said.
“I thought we were both going to stay out. I was surprised
to see him pitting. In the end it was a roll of the dice both
ways.”
McLaren’s reigning champion Lando Norris finished fourth
with teammate Oscar Piastri fifth.
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was sixth, after starting fourth
and clashing with Leclerc on the opening lap.
Pierre Gasly, the initial pole sitter for Renault-owned
Alpine, was seventh with Racing Bulls’ rookie Arvid Lindblad
eighth and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto ninth. Racing Bulls’
stand-in Yuki Tsunoda completed the scoring positions in 10th.
Source: Khaleej Times