SHANGHAI (AP) — He’s been defined by being Lewis Hamilton’s successor and George Russell’s teammate. Now Kimi Antonelli is a Formula 1 race-winner in his own right, and the second-youngest in history.
The 19-year-old Italian pulled clear of an entertaining battle between Russell and the two Ferraris to take a commanding win at the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday and share the podium with his teammate and Hamilton, the seven-time champion he replaced last year.
“I’m speechless. I’m about to cry, to be honest,” Antonelli said, holding back tears. “Thank you so much to my team because they helped me to achieve this dream.”
Wolff's gamble pays off
It's a vindication of the gamble Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff took in picking the youngster, who'd joined Mercedes' junior program aged just 11, to replace an all-time great when Hamilton moved to Ferrari for 2025. There were plenty of doubters when Antonelli crashed 10 minutes into his practice debut in 2024.
“Many said it was just too early last year, and obviously we asked ourselves that question, whether it was too much to throw him into this pressure cooker," Wolff told Sky Sport Germany.
"One year with ups and downs and he’s young. We have to forgive him these mistakes, and now he’s in the second Grand Prix (of 2026) and brings it home ruthlessly. It’s good.”
The 19-year-old Italian was the youngest pole-position starter and briefly lost the lead to Hamilton at the start but retook it soon after and was in control the rest of the way.
Locking up a tire near the end caused him “a little bit of a heart attack,” but he made it to the end to celebrate with his father, who once sneaked his then seven-year-old son into the F1 paddock hidden in a stack of tires to get closer to the action.
It was another 1-2 finish for Mercedes to start the season as Russell came through a battle with both Ferraris to finish second. Hamilton was third for his long-awaited first Grand Prix podium finish for Ferrari.
The only driver younger than Antonelli to win a Grand Prix was Max Verstappen, who was 18 when he took his first victory in 2016. He's the first Italian to win since Giancarlo Fisichella in 2006, five months before Antonelli was born.
Russell bests Ferraris in thriller
The new regulations again produced a dramatic fight for position between Mercedes and the fast-starting Ferraris as Russell fought his way past Charles Leclerc and Hamilton in a multi-lap battle with numerous changes of position. That allowed Antonelli to build his lead at the front.
Even after Russell had pulled away to secure second place, teammates Leclerc and Hamilton kept up their own fight for third. “This is quite a fun battle," Leclerc exclaimed over the radio.
Leclerc was fourth with Oliver Bearman fifth for Haas, Pierre Gasly sixth for Alpine and Liam Lawson seventh for Racing Bulls. Isack Hadjar recovered from an early spin to place eighth for Red Bull, ahead of Carlos Sainz, Jr. in ninth for Williams, while Franco Colapinto was 10th for Alpine to score his first point since 2024.
Max Verstappen was running sixth when his car lost power and he had to limp back to the pits in another blow for the four-time champion, who has been a leading critic of F1’s new cars.
Double disaster for McLaren
Formula 1 champion Lando Norris and his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri were both unable to start after encountering technical problems minutes before the race began.
Piastri was due to start fifth and Norris sixth for Sunday's race. Norris was in his car in the pits but didn't leave for the grid, before Piastri was then withdrawn from the grid.
McLaren said it found “two different electrical problems on the power unit side” after an investigation. It's the second time Piastri has failed to start in 2026 after he crashed before the start of last week's race in Australia. Only 18 of 22 cars took the start, with Audi's Gabriel Bortoleto and Williams' Alex Albon also unable to make it, before both Aston Martin cars and Verstappen hit trouble in the race too.
F1 is racing hours after it announced next month's races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia will not go ahead because of the war in the Middle East.
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