Kimi Antonelli takes historic home win at Monza as Mercedes dominates

What a race. Kimi Antonelli just became the first Italian to win at Monza since 1966, launching an incredible charge from 19th on the grid to secure what is easily his finest victory yet. He played the opening laps brilliantly, sitting 12th when the red flags waved, before fighting up to eighth at the second start and eventually hunting down his teammate.

That Silver Arrows intra-team duel was pure theatre. George Russell had grabbed the lead from Gasly on Lap 2, wrestling with Verstappen up front and swapping places with Antonelli before the decisive strategy split. When a Virtual Safety Car flew, the team brought Antonelli in for fresh mediums while Russell stayed out on hards. On fresh rubber, Antonelli scythed his way back to his teammate, taking the lead and ultimately a famous win despite one hairy moment through the gravel.

Behind them, Max Verstappen extracted everything from his Red Bull RB22 to claim third. He jumped Russell early on for the lead and hung tenaciously with the Mercedes pair, later pitting under the VSC for fresh rubber to salvage a podium finish despite struggling with straight-line deployment compared to the Mercedes-powered cars and taking a trip through loose gravel at turn two.

McLaren rounded out the main fight with a fierce intra-team scrap of their own. Lando Norris finished fourth after a difficult start on hard tyres, eventually closing in on his teammate and battling past Oscar Piastri in a wheel-to-wheel moment that sent Norris briefly onto the grass before the pit wall called the fight off. Piastri took fifth after showing some of his strongest pace in a while, though he ultimately conceded that Mercedes held a clear step advantage over the rest of the field.

Further back, Liam Lawson faced an uphill battle starting from the pit lane following engine penalties. He made a strong initial gain on the first lap, but a front-wing-damaging clash with Nico at the restart forced an extra stop that left him too far back, ultimately classifying 14th in a tough weekend for the Red Bull driver.