Italian GP: Kimi Antonelli sensationally wins thrilling Monza race from George Russell and Max Verstappen

Kimi Antonelli completed a remarkable comeback to win his home Italian Grand Prix from 19th place after a race-long battle against Mercedes team-mate George Russell.

Antonelli was not expected to contend for victory due to grid penalties for exceeding his engine allocation but stormed through the field early on - in between the red flag for Charles Leclerc's huge crash - and showed tremendous pace to catch Russell on an alternative strategy.

The two Mercedes and Max Verstappen pulled clear of the field in the first half of the race, exchanging the lead several times, due to the yoyo style of racing caused by the 2026 power units and the impact of having a slipstream around the long straights at Monza.

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Antonelli and Verstappen pitted on Lap 29, just after half race distance, when a Virtual Safety Car came out for Lance Stroll stopping in his Aston Martin.

After their pit stops, the pair emerged in sixth and seventh with a 15-second deficit to Russell but comfortably made their way back up to the top positions on fresher tyres.

Antonelli caught Russell with five laps remaining but ran wide at the first chicane due to the track breaking up. However, he was soon back on Russell's tail and made the race-winning move with three laps to go, while Verstappen held off the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to claim third.

It means Antonelli is 66 points ahead of Russell in the Drivers' Championship with the latter also expected to take grid penalties of his own at a future race.

"Unbelievable! "I am so happy and I could have never imagined to be here today," said Antonelli.

"But we managed to pull it off and I'm really, really happy."

Norris limited the damage in fourth on a weekend McLaren struggled, but not without a feisty battle with Piastri during the final laps, and is 96 points behind Antonelli in the standings.

Ferrari had huge hopes to win at Monza but Lewis Hamilton struggled to sixth, having been left frustrated since the opening lap when he was forced into the gravel by team-mate Leclerc who crashed hard on the third lap.

Pole-sitter Pierre Gasly did not have the pace and dropped to seventh, ahead of Racing Bulls' Arvid Lindblad, his Alpine team-mate Franco Colapinto and the other Racing Bulls of Yuki Tsunoda.

How Antonelli completed stunning comeback

Mercedes had already planned an alternative strategy for Antonelli by starting him on the hard tyres and the championship leader made a phenomenal start to go from 19th to 12th in the three laps before Leclerc's huge shunt at the high-speed final corner.

Leclerc gingerly walked away from the accident but the race was red flagged so the barriers could be repaired, which allowed everyone to switch tyres.

Russell was on pole for the restart after he took the lead on the second lap from original pole-sitter Gasly, while Verstappen made up two spots and was third.

Most drivers put on the hard tyres but Verstappen, Hamilton who was eighth after being edged into the gravel by Leclerc on the first lap, and Antonelli were among six drivers to choose the mediums.

Russell held onto the lead but was caught by Verstappen, who quickly dispatched Gasly, and the Red Bull driver surprisingly had the speed to overtake Russell too.

While Verstappen defended hard from Russell, Antonelli was remarkably up to third as he overtook the Racing Bulls drivers, Piastri, title rivals Norris and Hamilton, plus Gasly to be in third after just 13 laps.

The field was bunched together so Antonelli joined the Verstappen, Russell scrap which turned into a Mercedes one-two as Verstappen struggled more on his tyres.

Mercedes wanted their drivers to help each other with the use of Overtake Mode - which allows more electrical deployment when a driver is within one second of the car in front.

After some back and forth, Russell and Antonelli slowly pulled away from Verstappen. But, the key moment came on Lap 29 as Stroll stopped with a reliability issue which caused a Virtual Safety Car.

Given Russell was on hard tyres, Mercedes elected to keep him out but Antonelli and Verstappen pitted as they were on mediums. However, post-race Russell stated he thought Antonelli was also going to stay out.

On fresh tyres, Antonelli again overtook Gasly, Norris, Hamilton and Piastri with ease, and was setting some blistering lap times to catch Russell.

A change for the lead late on felt inevitable but Antonelli was caught out by his first overtake attempt on Russell when he ran wide at Turn 2 which was breaking up due to the intense heat at Monza.

But, he got back onto Russell's tail after two laps and took the lead down to the Ascari Chicane with three laps remaining and went on to take a memorable victory.

"It was quite scary there in the moment [when I went wide]. The tarmac was breaking up but I still thought I could do the corner," he said.

"But once I went over a bit of gravel as well I went straight and I was like 'maybe I lost my chance'. But luckily we still had the pace and managed to bring it home."

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