– Kimi Antonelli was not only able to win the Belgian Grand Prix, but took the opportunity on Sunday to dedicate the success on the Ardennes rollercoaster to his father. He was celebrating his 61st birthday.
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Marco Antonelli is not only the father of the current world championship leader, but was also active in motorsport for many years. Apart from some appearances in GT3 racing, Antonelli was seen in touring car racing in the 90s and early 2000s, albeit with only a few highlights.
Later, however, he was able to celebrate some successes with his own racing team. He also enabled his son to take the first steps in karting, with the current Mercedes driver later racing mainly for teams like Prema in his career.
After the Belgian Grand Prix, he took the opportunity to congratulate his father on television as well. Grand Prix winners this season have the chance to sign the official sponsor’s champagne bottle with a personal message. The message from the Mercedes driver was therefore: “Happy birthday, Dad!”
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On his son’s Instagram account, there were further birthday wishes for the father of the world championship leader, as well as a small cake attack. In addition to his sixth Grand Prix win and his father’s 61st birthday, Antonelli can also enjoy his current lead in the world championship.
DE Light and shadow at Mercedes: Antonelli wins, Russell crashes
He was able to extend this to 45 world championship points with the victory at Spa-Francorchamps. The gap between him and Mercedes teammate George Russell is already 50 world championship points. Russell struggled with his power unit on race day in Spa and had to end the Grand Prix after a few meters.
The reason was a collision with Lewis Hamilton, who is placed second in the drivers’ world championship. After the race, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff spoke of a technical problem with all power units from Brixworth.
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