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ercedes’ 20-year-old rising star, Kimi Antonelli, had arrived in Mexico this weekend with one hand already on this year’s Drivers’ Championship title following his many outstanding performances to date this season, and, after the Mexico City Grand Prix at the historic Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit, he was duly crowned the world champion.

This made him the youngest ever champion in Formula 1’s 76-year history, the first Italian to do so since 1953, and in only his second season at the peak of world motorsport. What a thoroughly deserved fairytale for the highly likeable young driver, who finished third in Mexico behind the race winner, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton.

Prior to the Grand Prix, the options had been fairly simple in terms of whether Antonelli would claim his first F1 title in Mexico or not. If neither his teammate, George Russell, nor Hamilton won, the Italian would become the champion regardless of where he did or didn’t finish. Also, if Russell won, ninth position or better would suffice for Antonelli, and 10th or better would be fine if Hamilton proved to be victorious.

Antonelli had been excused from media duties on Thursday at the high-altitude venue after feeling unwell while still recovering from a viral illness and was allowed to remain at the team hotel to recuperate. On Friday the opening free practice session had featured some on track experience for numerous young would-be F1 race drivers in place of the regular incumbents, and, for the record, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc went quickest ahead of Antonelli. After the same day’s second practice period, it proved to be Leclerc who again topped the timesheets, with Racing Bull’s Liam Lawson and Verstappen both picking up one-place grid penalties for the race after a clumsy and unnecessary coming-together in the stadium section. With Lawson facing a fight to retain his seat for next year as Red Bull considers replacing him with the rising F2 star, Nikola Tsolov, Verstappen rightly described the Kiwi’s behaviour as anything but clever.

Subsequently, Esteban Ocon, who is already set to be released by the Haas team at the end of the season, was suddenly dropped by the outfit for the rest of the Mexican race weekend after second practice. No official explanation was given, but it wasn’t health related and may have been a disciplinary issue. The French driver was replaced by the outfit’s 32-year-old Japanese reserve driver, Ryo Hirakawa.

Saturday’s final practice was headed by McLaren’s Lando Norris, if a mere 0.001s faster than Antonelli, and, after the crucial qualifying hour which followed, it was Hamilton who claimed his first pole position since Hungary 2023 ahead of Russell, with Antonelli only fifth fastest, but set to start fourth after application of Verstappen’s one-place penalty and knowing that such a race result would easily make him the new champion.

On a bright and sunny afternoon the pre-Grand Prix formation lap began at precisely two pm (eight pm back in the UK), and soon the cars were blasting through the thin air on the long 850-metre run down to the braking point for the opening right-hand corner. Clear indiscipline between Hamilton and Leclerc was to cost Ferrari any chance of winning the race and will need addressing behind closed doors if the pair are to continue working together in a more acceptable manner. Both drivers carried excessive speed into the opening sweeps and left the track, with the leading Leclerc subsequently receiving a five-second penalty for gaining a lasting advantage and Verstappen rising from fifth to second. There was a brief Virtual Safety Car period on lap 7 related to a double retirement for both Aston Martin cars, and soon the stewards also gave Russell a 10-second penalty for clearly colliding with Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar and ruining the latter’s afternoon.

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y lap 27 both Leclerc and Verstappen made their only pitstops of the race, and the serving of the former’s time penalty handed the advantage on track to Red Bull’s team leader. Completion of stops for all the leading contenders left Verstappen leading ahead of Leclerc, Hamilton and Antonelli before a hefty off for Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas at Turn 1 following apparent front left suspension failure led to a Safety Car intervention, which quickly became a full red flag stoppage. Following the restart, Verstappen continued to lead, with Hamilton running second and Antonelli getting the better of Leclerc for third.

The Safety Car was later again called into action for three laps after a Turn 2 crash for Racing Bull’s Arvid Lindblad following contact with the McLaren of Oscar Piastri and Verstappen, who went on to add a further highly impressive victory to his CV after starting fifth on the grid. The four-time champion was joined on the post-race podium by the seven-time champion, Hamilton, and the newly crowned latest champion, Antonelli.

What a trio of racing superstars! For the record, Leclerc, Norris and Russell completed the top six finishers, and the race result elevated Verstappen to second in the Drivers’ Championship standings, with Mercedes still the clear favourite for the Constructors’ title.

Another sell-out F1 crowd was privileged to witness the young Antonelli seal his first world title amidst his understandably jubilant parents and sister as well, of course, as all his Mercedes colleagues, and, with Formula 1 motor racing long having been the second religion in Italy, church bells were no doubt ringing all around the country in mutual celebration.

Toto Wolff has long been aware of what a prodigious young talent Mercedes has on its books in the form of Antonelli, and he had the courage to give him a race seat alongside Russell when Hamilton had opted to leave for Ferrari, despite the criticism from some quarters that he would have been wiser to sign a more experienced, if less gifted, replacement for the multiple champion. Antonelli’s title success at such a young age has clearly left the far more experienced pre-season favourite, Russell, somewhat dismayed and at a loss to understand how he has dropped from being the clear number one driver at Mercedes to being an unequivocal number two.

Immediately after the Grand Prix, Russell congratulated Antonelli, but Wolff described his British driver as “distraught” and, without FIA permission, excused him from his obligatory post-race media duties, with the driver from King’s Lynn immediately leaving the circuit as the Mercedes celebrations with Antonelli began. This breach of the rules led to the team being fined $5000, and time will tell as to whether Russell can reassert himself next season against Italy’s and much of the world’s now favourite sporting superstar. In any event, there was much fun to be had in the Mercedes pit garages post race in Mexico before attention had to turn to the vital preparations required for relocating south to São Paulo, Brazil, for the following Grand Prix there next weekend.

2026 Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix

1 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 2hrs20m28.772s
2 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.799s
3 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +4.006s
4 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +10.707s
5 Lando Norris (McLaren) +11.778s
6 George Russell (Mercedes) +12.263s
7 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +20.899s
8 Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) +22.041s
9 Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +22.503s
10 Ryo Hirakawa (Haas) +25.373s
11 Alex Albon (Williams) +27.572s
12 Carlos Sainz (Williams) +28.638s
13 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +29.475s
14 Nico Hülkenberg (Audi) +29.977s
15 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +30.204s
16 Sergio Pérez (Cadillac) +30.695s
17 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +51.483s
18 Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) Retired
19 Oliver Bearman (Haas) Retired
20 Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) Retired
21 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) Retired
22 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) Retired

2026 Drivers’ Championship
1 Kimi Antonelli 380 CHAMPION
2 Max Verstappen 261
3 Lewis Hamilton 259 2026 Constructors’ Championship
1 Mercedes 630
2 Ferrari 504
3 Red Bull 382

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