Antonelli clinches F1 world title as Verstappen wins Mexican Grand Prix
Kimi Antonelli became world champion by finishing third at the Mexico City Grand Prix at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez on 1 November 2026, a race won by Max Verstappen with Lewis Hamilton second.
Antonelli, aged 20 years and 68 days, claimed the drivers' championship in only his second season in Formula 1 and is the youngest driver to do so, breaking the previous mark by three years and 67 days; he is also the first Italian champion since Alberto Ascari in 1953 and has become the sport’s 36th world champion.
The Mexican Grand Prix was interrupted by a red flag that led to a 25-lap sprint to the finish, a sequence of events that left Verstappen to take victory while Antonelli maintained a composed drive to secure the podium position required for the title amid tensions elsewhere on the grid.
Antonelli ran a steady race, spending the opening stint fourth before moving into the lead as rivals pitted; he stopped for fresh tyres one lap before a safety car triggered by Valtteri Bottas's lap-45 crash, which later required barrier repairs and a race suspension.
At the restart, Charles Leclerc locked his left-front wheel during battles involving Verstappen and Hamilton, and Antonelli passed Leclerc at the start of the following lap; a later safety car after Arvid Lindblad's crash with Oscar Piastri produced a seven-lap run-in in which Antonelli, Verstappen and Hamilton finished nose to tail, separated by less than two seconds.
The first-lap clash inside Ferrari provoked controversy after Leclerc cut the Turn Four/Five chicane to take the lead; the stewards ruled he had gained an advantage and imposed a five-second penalty, noting mitigation and that the standard sanction would have been 10 seconds because Hamilton had also run off.
Hamilton voiced his displeasure on the matter, saying: "The problem is he’s got clean air, and doesn’t have to manage like the rest of us. He should just give the place back," and later added: "The stewards are basically handing Charles this win." After the stoppage he declared: "We’ve got big problems. Big, big problems."
George Russell finished sixth, serving a 10-second penalty for tipping Red Bull's Isack Hadjar into a spin on the first lap, ahead of Oscar Piastri whose car was damaged in the incident with Lindblad; those placings and penalties contributed to the final order behind the podium.
Antonelli's championship follows a season in which he took a commanding lead after the third round in Japan, winning five of the first six races and nine grands prix overall while scoring points in all but two events, and producing notable results such as a victory from 19th on the grid at Monza.
He sealed the title with four races remaining, delivering Mercedes their first drivers' championship since Hamilton in 2020 and the team's 10th, and celebrated on the slowing-down lap with tears and laughter, telling his team over the radio: "Thank you so much. We did it. We did it."
