Teenage driver Kimi Antonelli secured his maiden Formula One grand prix victory in China on Sunday, finishing ahead of his Mercedes teammate George Russell, while Lewis Hamilton claimed his first podium result for Ferrari.
The 19-year-old, who had already made history by becoming the youngest pole-sitter in Formula One, turned his strong starting position into a memorable win after both McLaren cars were unable to start the race in Shanghai.
Although Antonelli briefly surrendered the lead at the beginning, he soon regained control and maintained a steady pace throughout the race. He eventually crossed the finish line more than five seconds ahead of Russell. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished fourth, completing a competitive outing for the Italian team.
What did Antonelli say?
“I’m speechless, I’m about to cry to be honest,” said Antonelli as he choked back tears.
“Thank you to the team for helping me to achieve this dream.”
It was an almost flawless drive from the youngster, apart from one heart-fluttering moment when he locked up at the hairpin on his penultimate lap.
But he recovered to avoid nothing more damaging than a small excursion off track.
“I really wanted to bring Italy back to the top and we did today. Even if I gave myself a little bit of a heart attack towards the end a flat spot,” Antonelli added.
Early championship leader Russell was full of praise for his young teammate after the dominant Mercedes team secured a one-two for the second race running.
“A huge congratulations to Kimi because it’s always very special to win your first race,” said Russell, whose lead has been cut to four points by Antonelli.
The Italian replaced Hamilton at Mercedes and the seven-time world champion said he could not be more pleased for the teenager and his old team.
“I’m so so happy for you buddy, and I’m so honored to be able to share this moment with him,” said Hamilton.
He took my seat obviously, at this great team. So big congratulations to Mercedes. They’re really pulling ahead at the moment. We’ve got a lot of work to do to try and keep up.”
Hamilton, as he had done in Saturday’s sprint, got a great start and had taken the lead by the time the teams emerged from the first complex of turns.
Leclerc also launched brilliantly and managed to get past Russell, who started second on the grid. The top four swapped places multiple times before a safety car on lap 11 brought them all into the pits.
Once the dust settled and they went racing again, Antonelli led from Hamilton, with Leclerc third and Russell fourth.
By lap 29 Russell had got past both Ferraris and up to second and set off trying to catch his young Italian teammate, who was by now more than seven seconds up the road. Four-time world champion Max Verstappen continued Red Bull’s poor start to the new season when he was told to retire his car on lap 46.
Oliver Bearman finished fifth for Haas, followed by Pierre Gasly of Alpine and Liam Lawson representing RB. The remaining points-paying positions in the top ten were taken by Isack Hadjar of Red Bull, Carlos Sainz driving for Williams, and Franco Colapinto of Alpine.
Reigning world champion Lando Norris and his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri were both unable to start the race due to separate technical issues, leaving the team without any cars on the grid. Norris was forced to withdraw after an electrical fault prevented him from reaching his starting position.
Piastri initially made it to the grid but was later pushed back into the garage shortly before the race began after another problem was detected with his car. In an official statement, McLaren confirmed that different technical issues had been identified on both cars, which ultimately ruled them out of the Chinese Grand Prix.
The situation marks a disappointing start to the season for the defending constructors’ champions. In the previous race in Melbourne, only one McLaren car was able to participate after Piastri crashed while heading to the grid. As a result, the Australian driver is yet to compete in a grand prix so far this season.
