Teenager Kimi Antonelli extended his lead in the drivers’ world championship with a commanding and nerveless win for Mercedes ahead of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton in a protracted, incident-hit Monaco Grand
Prix on Sunday, June 7.
It was the 19-year-old Italian’s record fifth successive win this season, making him the first Italian to achieve that feat since Alberto Ascari in 1952.
It lifted him 66 points clear of Hamilton in the title race.
“The car was a peach today,” he said after becoming the youngest winner of Formula One’s classic blue riband event.
“An incredible day – one of those when we had incredible pace to give me confidence to push.”
In a stoppage-strewn race punctuated by crashes, retirements and a series of penalties, Antonelli came home 6.271 seconds clear of seven-time champion Hamilton, with Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar third ahead of Oscar Piastri of McLaren.
Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad finished a career-best fifth and sixth respectively, while Sergio Perez in 10th scored the new Cadillac team’s first point.
Hamilton equalled Ayrton Senna’s record total of eight Monaco podiums.
Four-time champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull suffered an engine failure at the start and retired, as did world champion Lando Norris when his McLaren developed battery problems.
Antonelli made a perfect getaway. Behind him, Verstappen had a power failure as he attempted to start.
“What can I do?” asked Verstappen. “Just bring it home,” came the Red Bull reply. His problem was diagnosed as engine failure. It was his eighth first-lap retirement.
For Antonelli, the youngest-ever pole-sitter in Monaco, his dream start enabled a run in clear air to establish a lead of 5.4 seconds by lap 10.
Norris had a lap-one setback when, after squabbling with Piastri for sixth, he was passed by Pierre Gasly on the outside of St Devote.
In the first round of pit stops, Hamilton was one of several drivers given a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
After revelling in his supremacy, Antonelli came in a second time after 37 laps, easily retaining his lead before Norris’s problems ended with a call to retire on lap 46.
The young Italian was racing with such ease that race engineer Peter Bonington told him: “Kimi, fastest lap! No, we don’t need them.”
– ‘No rear brakes’ –
On lap 60, Lance Stroll smacked the barriers at Antony Noghes to prompt a safety car.
The race restarted on lap 66 and, as Antonelli pulled clear with Hamilton in pursuit, the luckless Leclerc crashed at the same spot.
“I’m not taking the blame for that,” he said. “It’s like I had no rear brakes at all.”
That lifted Hadjar into third place before a second red flag suspended the action, with the field called back to wait in the pit lane as the track was repaired and Russell was given a drive-through penalty for failing to serve an earlier time penalty correctly.
After a 40-minute hiatus, the action resumed from a standing start.
Antonelli held his nerve to lead again with Hamilton second ahead of Russell, who promptly pitted for his penalty and fell to 14th.
(With AFP Inputs)
