– For the Tifosi, the Italian Formula 1 fans, the Grand Prix in Monza 2026 will probably be remembered for a long time. Not because of Ferrari, as the beloved Scuderia experienced a Sunday afternoon like a nightmare. But because of local hero Kimi Antonelli, who, after a grid penalty for an engine change, launched a comeback of historic proportions and even celebrated the victory.
Read more Formula 1 live ticker: Antonelli wins after Leclerc crash!
“He was above all others today in terms of speed,” raves Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff in an interview with Sky. Antonelli drove furiously from the first lap, first engaged in a wheel-to-wheel and then a remote duel with his teammate George Russell, caught up again after an additional pit stop under VSC yellow – and ultimately triumphed in the internal Mercedes battle for victory with a 3.9-second lead.
An important milestone for the Mercedes star, also with regard to the World Championship: In the 2026 drivers’ standings, Antonelli now has a 66-point lead over Russell and 76 over Hamilton. In the constructors’ standings, Mercedes (468 points) has also extended its lead over Ferrari (346) and McLaren (287).
Third was Max Verstappen (Red Bull), who could only offer serious resistance to the Mercedes express in the first half of the race. Fourth place went to Lando Norris, after a late overtaking maneuver against his teammate Oscar Piastri. A duel that was fought hard on Piastri’s side and may still cause internal discussions at McLaren.
Lewis Hamilton finished sixth and thus saved Ferrari at least a few championship points at their home race. But the odds for the Scuderia dropped dramatically in the first two laps: First, Hamilton fell back to tenth place after a duel with none other than Charles Leclerc in turn 1, then Leclerc crashed heavily. That he remained uninjured was a stroke of luck in misfortune.
Pole sitter Pierre Gasly (Alpine) could not withstand the pressure from the top teams at any time, led for only one lap, and finished the race in seventh place. Eighth was Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls), ahead of Franco Colapinto (Alpine) and Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls).
Nico Hülkenberg crossed the finish line twelfth, one second behind his Audi teammate Gabriel Bortoleto.
On the topic:
Result: Italian GP race, Monza
2026 Formula 1 World Championship standings
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Livestream: F1 analysis with Christian Nimmervoll (9 PM)
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How did Monza become a disaster for Ferrari?
For the Tifosi (403,666 spectators over the whole weekend), the Ferrari home race started like a nightmare. Leclerc and Hamilton drove side by side into the first corner. At first, they lined up cleanly, but at the exit, Hamilton ran out of space next to his teammate. “Charles pushed me off,” radioed the seven-time world champion – and dropped from fourth to tenth place.
But: “You have to expect that if you’re on the outside line,” analyzes ServusTV expert Christian Klien and defends Leclerc. Sky expert Ralf Schumacher sees it the same way: “The corner is just too tight. Lewis should have aborted earlier when he realized Leclerc was on the inside for the next corner.”
The FIA stewards saw it the same way: Although the incident was initially noted, no formal investigation was initiated. Much to the surprise of Nico Rosberg, by the way: For the expert of the English-language Sky broadcast, the situation was “100 percent” Leclerc’s fault.
But it got worse for the Scuderia. At the end of the second lap, Leclerc came under pressure from Piastri. In the Alboreto corner (formerly Parabolica), he suddenly had the McLaren beside him on the inside. “Very brave to dive into the Parabolica. You normally don’t do that at that spot,” says ServusTV expert Patrick Friesacher.
Anyway: There was no contact, and Leclerc seemed to maintain the upper hand. But after the apex of the corner, he started to slide, and after a countersteer, he crashed full force into the tire barriers on the left. Leclerc got out under his own power, first sat down on the grass – and the race was interrupted with a red flag due to the necessary track repairs.
“A disaster for Ferrari. You can’t say it any other way,” Klien breathed out during the live broadcast. And Leclerc gave reassurance in his first interviews: “My neck was okay. Only at first, I saw a bit blurry with my right eye. But now everything is fine again.”
After qualifying sensation: How long did Gasly lead?
At the start, naturally, all eyes were on surprise pole sitter Gasly. He got off the line very well and led the field through the first lap – his first leading lap since the 2020 Formula 1 season. But that was the end of Alpine’s fireworks for the time being. Gasly still crossed the line as leader in lap 1 but was overtaken on the way to turn 1 first by Russell and then by Leclerc in one sweep.
Leclerc was able to counter Gasly immediately, so at the race restart, he was in second place behind Russell, ahead of Verstappen, Colapinto, Piastri, Norris, Lindblad, and Hamilton. Antonelli, who started from the back due to a power unit change, had already worked his way up to twelfth place at this point.
The first restart had to be aborted when all cars had already gathered on the grid again. Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls) was crooked in his starting box because he initially wanted to stay on the left but was actually assigned a spot on the right. “Honestly, that shouldn’t happen,” commented Friesacher in the ServusTV broadcast.
The second restart was won by Russell ahead of Gasly, and Colapinto was initially able to push past Verstappen. But exiting Lesmo 1, the Argentinian slid off and fell back to sixteenth place. Thus, Alpine had only one card left at the front, and Gasly was pushed further back as the race progressed.
It was now Russell leading ahead of Gasly, Verstappen, and Hamilton, who had overtaken both McLarens with a rocket start. On lap 7, Verstappen passed Gasly first, and further back, Antonelli plowed through the field as if there were no tomorrow: By the end of lap 8, the local hero was already classified sixth, 4.8 seconds behind Russell.
Antonelli’s comeback: “Like from another star”
Russell lost his lead in lap twelve: Verstappen had already increased the pressure and used the extra power before turn 1 to accelerate past the Mercedes. At that time, Antonelli was already fourth, and his gap to the lead was only 2.7 seconds.
https://x.com/F1/status/2096598246831312975At the start of lap 13, Antonelli also overtook Piastri, and Russell was now in his slipstream. “He is driving like from another star at the moment,” raved ServusTV commentator Andreas Gröbl. Something big was brewing in Monza.
Read more After severe accident: Charles Leclerc complains about vision problems
On lap 15, Russell then – on the second attempt, after already trying in lap 14 – passed Verstappen after the Curva Grande and took the lead again. This initially spared him the greatest humiliation of being overtaken so quickly by Antonelli despite the grid penalty.
But Antonelli did not hesitate any longer, and in lap 16 he passed Verstappen and set out to chase his teammate. “Did you think he would come this far forward?” Friesacher asked Klien in the ServusTV commentary. He replied: “No, not this fast. The speed is phenomenal.”
From lap 18: Thrilling duel of the Mercedes stars
And so it came as it had to: In lap 18, Antonelli passed Russell amid frenzied cheers from his Italian fans. He had made the impossible possible. But he could not immediately pull away: In turn 19, the leading trio approached the first corner in the closest slipstream. The order initially remained unchanged, but in lap 20, Russell took Antonelli back. Only to be countered again a few hundred meters later, exiting Curva Grande.
The Mercedes express offered yo-yo racing in pure form: In lap 22, Russell overtook Antonelli again, and again there was an immediate counter. Team boss Toto Wolff watched the action from the Mercedes box and tried not to show his tension – not even when Russell took the lead again in lap 23. And this time, there was no counter before the Seconda Variante.
Now Antonelli’s race engineer Peter Bonnington intervened: “Kimi, we have to stop the yo-yo racing.” But the Italian only accepted this after another radio message: “George was told to build a gap to Verstappen. If he can’t do that, we’ll swap positions.”
Verstappen was 1.3 seconds behind Russell in third place on lap 25 and was able to stay in the slipstream, although he complained on the radio – as on Saturday – about the behavior of especially his rear end.
In lap 26, Antonelli braked too late and had to go straight through the escape road, but apart from a few pebbles on his tires, this had no consequences. Neither could Verstappen attack him, nor did Antonelli lose significant ground to Russell.
Strategy split: How a VSC reshuffled the race
In lap 28, a virtual safety car phase occurred due to a marshal on the track in sector 1. This initiated a decisive turning point in the Grand Prix: Although Russell was leading, Antonelli was the first to pit, while Russell stayed out – so the Italian got the tire change (hard to medium) at “half price.” Just like Verstappen, who also pitted in Antonelli’s slipstream.
At least on the TV broadcast, no big complaints from Russell were aired – an indication that the Brit wanted to try to run the race distance without another tire change. After Antonelli’s stop, he had a 17.1-second lead over his teammate, who had temporarily fallen back to sixth place but was on tires 26 laps older.
Fifteen laps from the finish, Antonelli was already second again, and he had reduced his gap to 7.9 seconds. “I’m driving as fast as I can,” grumbled Russell when Antonelli’s lap times were relayed to him on the radio. And trouble briefly loomed: Due to an offense under yellow flags, he was in the sights of the FIA stewards. Verdict: no further action – no penalty.
For a moment, the air seemed out in an otherwise action-packed race, but that was just the calm before the storm. On lap 48 (of 53), Antonelli had reduced his gap to under one second, and the decisive overtaking maneuver was now only a matter of time.
Before the Alboreto corner, Antonelli was already close, and at the start of lap 49, he launched his attack – which initially ended in the gravel trap of the first corner! Antonelli was outside, had excess speed, but Russell braked late on the inside and was carried wide straight ahead. “What the hell?” Antonelli got upset as he sped through the gravel – but Christian Klien thinks: “That was not intentional.”
A situation that annoys the Mercedes team boss in retrospect: “That was definitely not necessary. I have to think about how we might have managed that better,” says Wolff but is overall satisfied with the duel behavior of his protégés in Monza: “Today they showed they can race hard against each other without crashing.”
Antonelli shook the pebbles off his tires and was already closing in again in lap 50. “Keep it clean,” was radioed to him. And this time, the lead change worked without complications: After the second Lesmo, he passed Russell to take the lead. At the start/finish line, he was greeted with frenzied cheers. And his race engineer radioed: “Kimi, no risk.”
Russell had nothing left to oppose in the final phase with worn tires and had to let go. “He fought, and he has to fight. But in the end, he had blunt weapons,” says Wolff. However, he had enough buffer to Verstappen behind to safely bring second place home. Verstappen finished third.
Behind them, the McLaren drivers still fought a heated duel. In the end, Norris prevailed, but not without a tense situation in the first sector: “He pushed me off. That was very dangerous,” the reigning world champion was annoyed about his teammate. And on the radio, Piastri was admonished: “Clean racing!”
Hamilton finished sixth. A weak consolation for Ferrari after a nightmare Sunday. Pole sitter Gasly ultimately finished the Italian Grand Prix in seventh place.
Formula 1 calendar 2026: What’s next?
The Italian Grand Prix is over, the Tifosi are rolling up their Ferrari flags, and the TV stations are ending their live broadcasts. But for die-hard motorsport fans, the race Sunday in Monza is not over yet. Because on Sunday evening, a detailed analysis is still on the program.
At 9:00 PM, the Formula 1 livestream begins on the Formel1.de YouTube channel with the old regular cast: Kevin Scheuren hosts the show, editor-in-chief Christian Nimmervoll returns as an expert after a long health-related absence. The special thing about it: Channel members have the opportunity via live chat to ask our hosts questions and discuss the race with like-minded Formula 1 fans. (Become a channel member now!)
Afterwards, there is little time to catch a breath. Immediately after Monza, the Grand Prix circus travels on to Madrid, where the European finale of the 2026 Formula 1 season will take place in a week on a brand-new track. (Here’s the link to the 2026 Formula 1 calendar!)
Read more Vote now: Who were the best drivers in Monza?
