Antonelli's Monza Miracle: From 19th to First, and Italy's Wait Is Over
Kimi Antonelli won the 2026 Italian Grand Prix from 19th on the grid, ending Italy's 60-year wait for a home Formula 1 winner and prompting his team boss to compare him to Lewis Hamilton.
The 20-year-old Mercedes driver carved through the field at Monza to beat teammate George Russell, who had started second, into second place. Mercedes sealed a one-two. It was Antonelli's seventh victory in 13 rounds this season — a campaign that has included a run of five wins in a row, triumphs in Monaco and Belgium, and a Miami performance that Toto Wolff at the time called the young driver's best yet.
For Monza, the bar moved again. "We've seen it with other great ones in the past — Lewis, who did it at some of the races — that's what he's shown," Wolff said. "There's just no stopping when a driver and a car are one, there's nothing that can stop them." He told Reuters he had sensed even on Saturday that Antonelli might deliver a "Sunday miracle," describing the performance to Reuters as being "like walk on water."
The circle closed in a place where it had once opened painfully. Antonelli's first appearance in a Mercedes came in free practice at Monza in 2024; he crashed at the Parabolica, the circuit's sweeping final corner. Two years later, on the same track, he became the first Italian to win his home grand prix since Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966, ending a drought that had stretched six decades. (Mercedes AMG F1)
Wolff called the victory the biggest moment of Antonelli's career, and offered a striking comparison for the driver's capacity to learn and improve — likening it to an AI agent that continuously self-improves.
The championship picture now carries the weight of a season nearly decided. Antonelli leads the drivers' standings by 66 points over Russell and 76 over Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton, with 10 rounds remaining. Russell, for his part, was blunt about the gap. He told Reuters that Antonelli was in control of the title fight and that he was not even thinking about a comeback, calling the deficit "exceptionally challenging to overcome."
Monza has hosted more Grands Prix than any other circuit on the calendar — 109 in total. Mercedes' history there now includes seven wins: two with Juan Manuel Fangio in the 1950s, four with Hamilton, one with Nico Rosberg, and now one with Antonelli.
What makes the afternoon stand out is the sheer improbability of the drive. Starting 19th means 18 cars and roughly 30 seconds of dirty air and traffic between a driver and the lead. To come through all of that, beat your own teammate who started on the front row, and end a national drought stretching back to the 1960s — in your second season — is the kind of result that turns a fast driver into a story.
