Kimi Antonelli's Monza Miracle Shakes Ferrari's Home Race

The old place has seen some things. Fangio, Clark, Schumacher. Yet on a hot Italian afternoon in 2026, Monza found room for another chapter: Kimi Antonelli, 19th on the grid, first under the chequered flag, and suddenly the man everyone else is chasing.

This was supposed to be a damage-limitation weekend. A raft of power unit changes dumped Antonelli to the back with a brutal 30-place penalty. His own team talked about making the best of a bad hand.

He tore that script up within minutes.

Antonelli from 19th to glory

From the moment the lights went out, the silver car with the tricolore in the grandstands behind it moved like it had somewhere urgent to be. Antonelli sliced through the opening laps with the kind of aggression that makes rivals nervous and fans fall in love. By the time Race Control threw the red flag for Charles Leclerc’s heavy crash, he was already 12th.

The restart reset the order on paper, not in reality. The Mercedes still had teeth. Antonelli picked off cars with a mix of patience and precision, slipping into the points, then into contention, then onto the tail of his team mate George Russell before half-distance. This was not a plucky recovery drive. It was a takeover.

Lap 18 brought the first real flashpoint. Antonelli launched his initial move on Russell for the lead, a warning shot as much as an overtake. The intra-team duel then turned on strategy when a mid-race Virtual Safety Car arrived at just the wrong – or right – moment, depending on which garage you were in.

Mercedes split their options. Antonelli ducked in for fresh mediums. Russell stayed out on used hards, gambling on track position and tyre life. From there, the outcome felt inevitable. Lap after lap, the Italian’s pace underlined what team boss Toto Wolff later voiced bluntly: “Nothing would have stopped him” from winning.

The home crowd knew it too. Every overtake, every purple sector, every glimpse of that silver car on the giant screens drew another roar. By the closing laps, the only tension left was how big the gap would be, not who would stand on the top step.

When Antonelli finally took the flag, Monza erupted. This was his first home victory in Formula 1, carved out from 19th on the grid. It wasn’t just a win; it was a statement.

The numbers behind it are just as brutal. Antonelli now leads Russell by 66 points in the championship, just nine shy of a three-win cushion. For the Briton, the message is stark: find an answer quickly, or watch the 2026 title drift into the hands of the sport’s newest superstar.

Ferrari’s dream weekend turns sour in a lap and a half

While one Italian hero soared, Ferrari’s home race fell apart almost before it began.

They had arrived at Monza with a spring in their step. A new engine upgrade, a car that should have sung on the straights, and two drivers talking big. Lewis Hamilton admitted on Thursday he “strongly believed” in Ferrari’s chances of victory. Charles Leclerc spoke openly about chasing “a very special weekend”.

Qualifying hinted at something better than they ultimately got, but not quite what they’d hoped for. Both drivers left Saturday feeling strategy had been mishandled. Even so, fourth and fifth on the timesheets became third and fourth on the grid after Oscar Piastri’s penalty. From there, a podium – at the very least – felt within reach.

Then the lights went out, and it all unravelled.

Leclerc, starting third, and Hamilton, just behind, went wheel-to-wheel into the second corner. Neither backed out. Hamilton ran wide into the gravel, showering dust and hopes in equal measure, and tumbled down the order. “Charles pushed me off!” came the immediate radio burst from the seven-time World Champion, frustration crackling through the static.

One lap later, the other half of Ferrari’s dream died. Leclerc lost control of his SF-26 and slammed into the barriers, his race over before it had truly begun. He later explained that he had to “go back off and on throttle” during that first tour and would “look into” what had gone wrong, but the damage – in every sense – was done.

The red flag that followed paused the chaos but did nothing to heal Ferrari’s wounds. Hamilton battled back, but sixth at the flag was a meagre return for a team that had arrived talking about victory. He called the race “a bit devastating” and “tough to swallow”, and there was no disguising the sting as he reflected on the opening-lap clash: “I ended up P10 or something. There's not really much to say. We'll take it offline.”

For the Tifosi, used to living on an emotional knife-edge at this circuit, it was another Monza afternoon that promised everything and delivered very little.

Gasly’s pole shocks Monza

If Antonelli owned Sunday, Pierre Gasly stole Saturday.

Qualifying at Monza always carries the potential for chaos. Slipstreams, traffic, and timing games can turn the grid upside down. Even so, almost nobody had Alpine and Gasly on their bingo card for pole position.

Yet that’s exactly what they produced.

Gasly, powered by Mercedes and fuelled by a personal history with this place, was electric. He went fastest in Q1, hinting that this might be more than a one-lap fluke, then delivered when it mattered most in Q3 to claim his maiden Formula 1 pole. At the same track where he took his first – and still only – Grand Prix victory six years ago, he found another career landmark.

“I’m so happy. It’s been nine years [in F1] trying to chase and get the opportunity to take pole position,” he said afterwards. “I won my first race in Monza, and to get my first pole position on this track… I think is something special around here.”

Holding back the heavy hitters over 53 laps was always going to be a stretch. Gasly led the opening lap, mixed it with the frontrunners for a while, then gradually slipped out of the podium fight. There was no collapse, no dramatic fade, just the reality of Alpine’s race pace against the giants.

He crossed the line seventh, 27 seconds adrift of Antonelli but comfortably ahead of the midfield pack behind. On paper, it’s “only” P7. In the context of Alpine’s season, it felt like a jolt of electricity.

Franco Colapinto added another bright note for the team. He surged as high as third at the restart, then paid for a trip off at Lesmo 1 that dropped him down the order. His response was impressive: a late charge that carried him past Yuki Tsunoda’s Racing Bulls to secure P9.

He ran out of laps to catch Arvid Lindblad in eighth, yet Alpine still walked away with both cars in the points and something more valuable: momentum. The haul cuts Racing Bulls’ advantage in the fight for fifth in the constructors’ standings to 13 points. For a team that has lurched through its share of turbulence, Monza offered a rare, clear sign of progress.

F2 and F3 light up Monza as Duerksen dominates

The support races did their part to keep the Autodromo buzzing.

In Formula 2, Joshua Duerksen turned the weekend into his personal showcase. The Invicta Racing driver won the Sprint race, then backed it up with a commanding drive in the Feature, leading home team mate Rafael Camara with Campos Racing’s Noel Leon completing the podium.

Those two victories lift Duerksen to a record-equalling eight wins in F2, a statistic that underlines just how ruthlessly he exploited Monza’s opportunities. The double triumph also propelled him to eighth in the championship, while Camara’s podium tightened the chase to series leader Nikola Tsolov.

Formula 3 added its own drama to the bill, delighting a crowd that rarely needs an excuse to get loud. For the young hopefuls, this is the stage where dreams start to feel real. For the fans, it’s a glimpse of who might be the next Antonelli.

Because that is the question Monza leaves hanging in the air now. After a weekend that crowned a new home hero, exposed Ferrari’s frailties, and reminded everyone that underdogs still have their day, the sport rolls on. But the image that lingers is unmistakable: a Mercedes, driven by an Italian from 19th to first, disappearing down the main straight as the old cathedral of speed roared its approval.