F1 – Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli became Formula One’s youngest world champion at 20 years old early this morning in a red-flagged and restarted Mexico City Grand Prix won by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
The first Italian champion since 1953 finished third, sobbing with joy over the team radio as he took the chequered flag at the high-altitude Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, with his overall lead now an unassailable 119 points.
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton started from pole position and took a close second place on an afternoon of drama with two safety cars, multiple crashes and an agonising 33-minute halt with 25 of the 71 laps remaining.
The Bologna-born Antonelli came into yesterday’s race 123 points clear of teammate and closest rival George Russell and 124 ahead of Hamilton, with a maximum 100 still available after Mexico. He had only needed to finish in the top nine to bring home the title.
A podium finish yesterday by Antonelli proved more than enough to secure the championship, capping a sensational campaign marked by maturity, consistency and blistering pace.
The Italian delivered a landmark achievement, becoming the youngest driver to claim motorsport’s most coveted crown and ushering in a new era for Mercedes.
His historic success places him among Formula One’s elite and signals the arrival of a new superstar.
In only his second season, Antonelli also became Italy’s first champion in 73 years when Alberto Ascari reigned supreme in 1953.
Antonelli has been off the podium only three times this season, on one of those occasions finishing fifth and failing to score in the others (Barcelona and Britain).
He has won nine times, including five in a row early on, a tally nobody else can equal. Victories came in China, Japan, Miami, Canada, Monaco, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Texas.
Last season, Antonelli started and finished sixth in Mexico.
Before yesterday’s historic feat by Antonelli, the youngest champion was Germany’s Sebastian Vettel with Red Bull in 2010 at the age of 23 years and 134 days.
The only past Italian champions were Giuseppe
Farina (1950) and Alberto Ascari (1952, 1953).
Ferrari, Formula One’s oldest and most successful team, had the chance to secure Antonelli, a young go-karter, in 2018 but let it slip through their fingers.
Mercedes seized the opportunity instead to do so when Antonelli was 11. He was fast-tracked by Mercedes as replacement for Hamilton, a seven-times champion.
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