On a Monza weekend that had already produced one implausible result in qualifying, Italy's new young star Kimi Antonelli delivered a second in Sunday's thrilling race to ensure its own prominent place in Formula 1's history books. Of course, unlike surprise pole position sitter Pierre Gasly - who had never previously qualified at the head of an F1 grid in 190 appearances spent in mostly midfield cars - the 20-year-old Antonelli has become a fixture at the head of the field this year. Sunday represented the seventh race win of the Mercedes driver's increasingly-impressive second of Formula 1 and one which extended what stood as a 59-point championship lead to a joint season-high 66 points.
But by winning from the second-lowest grid position in F1's 76-year history - 19th place - and beating a team-mate and chief title rival in George Russell who had started from the front row, Antonelli ensured it was anything but just another win. And that's before you even consider the local factor too - Antonelli ended a 60-year wait for an Italian to win their home Grand Prix again. The remarkable Monza comeback led to Antonelli being described as "King Kimi" by Martin Brundle, who has both raced against and commentated on many of the sport's most legendary figures over more than four decades.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Brundle's fellow Sky Sports F1 pundit Nico Rosberg, the 2016 world champion, was similarly effusive in his praise after witnessing Antonelli's remarkable drive. "We have to say the race that he drove, the first lap, the second start, everything was to perfection," said Rosberg. "The speed he had, how he was managing everything.
"He's in his second season in F1, he just turned 20. It's just unheard of!" Rosberg had been among the many ahead of the race to suggest that a podium was likely out of Antonelli's reach from the grid's penultimate row, something the Italian himself had ruled out after qualifying. But it turns out that not everyone was expecting it to necessarily be a race purely of damage limitation from the grid penalties that had left Antonelli so out of position.
"I thought one of the two [Mercedes drivers] is going to win," disclosed Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff after the race. "Either George because he was on pole [for the restart] or Kimi because he's going to walk over water here in Monza. And I felt that yesterday also." Wolff, who worked with Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes for six of the Briton's seven world titles, said he sensed "a special moment" was potentially in the offing from Antonelli at his home track.
"Its been a while that I've seen drivers' energy levels, mindset or behavioural pattern and I knew that that was his mission today, to win the race," he said. "I chatted with his father yesterday, the father also saw that coming. "These are the moments where you can see how a weekend is panning out through the sessions, that a special moment could come.
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