Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli stormed to a shock home victory at the 2026 Italian Grand Prix from 19th on the grid.
Mercedes’ George Russell assumed the lead on lap two from pole-sitter, Pierre Gasly before the red flag came out on lap three after Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc crashed at Parabolica at the end of the second lap.
Russell subsequently survived scraps with Antonelli and Max Verstappen to lead much of the race until Antonelli passed him on lap 50 on the run to Ascari to end 60 years of hurt for Italy at their home Grand Prix with his seventh GP win of the season, having began the race 19th on the grid.
Max Verstappen finished third ahead of Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton, Pierre Gasly, Arvid Lindblad, Franco Colapinto and Yuki Tsunoda.
In the drivers’ standings, Antonelli extended his title lead over Russell to 66 points whilst Hamilton fell 76 points behind the Italian.
At lights out, Gasly got a strong getaway to head Russell and Leclerc but Hamilton slipped to tenth after he got on the outside of the exit of Variante del Rettifilo, only for Leclerc to punt him wide and down to tenth.
Up front, Russell kept himself in the slipstream of Gasly and swept past the Frenchman on the second lap to claim the lead, as Gasly then briefly lost second to Leclerc only to quickly repass him through Curva Grande.
Leclerc subsequently lost third to Verstappen into Ascari and as Piastri tried to pass him on the inside of Parabolica, Leclerc’s Ferrari suddenly drifted out wide to the left and snapped into a high-speed spin into the outside barriers.
The safety car was initially deployed but stewards quickly opted to deploy the red flag due to the damage inflicted on the tyre barriers, such was the force of impact although Leclerc walked away unharmed.
At the time of stoppage, Hamilton recovered to eighth whilst Antonelli had climbed from 19th to 12th in the order.
After a 31-minute delay, the race resumed behind the safety car which was followed by an aborted standing restart on lap 5 but on the second attempt, Russell made a clean getaway to head Gasly as Verstappen lost third to Colapinto.
Verstappen however repassed Colapinto on the outside of Variante della Roggia and the latter subsequently ran wide out of the first Lesmo curve to slide out of the top ten, whilst the Dutchman then passed Gasly into the Parabolica on lap seven for second.
Antonelli meanwhile quietly continued to carve his way through the field and found himself third by the end of lap 13 as Russell and Verstappen scrapped for the lead, and swept past the latter through Curva Grande on lap 16 for second, which became the lead on lap 18 into Rettifilo.
Russell however stayed with his younger teammate and the pair exchanged the lead repeatedly to cut Verstappen adrift of the one-second range, before Russell assumed the lead on lap 23 into Rettifilo.
A Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was deployed on lap 28 after Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll stopped on track with a hydraulic failure. which prompted Antonelli and Verstappen to pit for fresh medium and hard tyres and the VSC soon ended as they exited the pits a lap later.
Antonelli subsequently recovered to second by the end of lap 37 as he cleared Piastri into Rettifilo, whilst Verstappen had to wait until a late-braking move through Roggia on lap 39 to follow the Italian through back into the top three.
Piastri however refused to let Verstappen scurry away and repassed the four-time champion into Roggia, yet he was repassed into Rettifilo on lap 43.
Up front, Antonelli calmly reeled Russell in and passed his title rival into Rettifilo on the inside for the lead on lap 49 but locked up mid-corner and ran deep, which allowed Russell to recover from running deep into the corner to retake the lead.
Antonelli however regrouped quickly and launched a switchback out of the second Lesmo to blast past Russell towards Ascari for the lead and victory, making him the first Italian to win his home race since Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966.
The 20 year-old also set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap to cap off his sensational drive.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 53 | 1h 51m 15.281 |
| 2 | George Russell | Mercedes | 53 | + 3.857 |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 53 | + 14.718 |
| 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 53 | + 19.056 |
| 5 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 53 | + 19.253 |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 53 | + 24.655 |
| 7 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 53 | + 27.351 |
| 8 | Arvid Lindblad | Racing Bulls | 53 | + 45.136 |
| 9 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | 53 | + 47.353 |
| 10 | Yuki Tsunoda | Racing Bulls | 53 | + 58.187 |
| 11 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Audi | 53 | + 65.187 |
| 12 | Nico Hulkenberg | Audi | 53 | + 66.187 |
| 13 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | 53 | + 74.117 |
| 14 | Liam Lawson | Red Bull | 53 | + 75.609 |
| 15 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | 53 | + 78.958 |
| 16 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | 52 | + 1 Lap |
| 17 | Alex Albon | Williams | 52 | + 1 Lap |
| 18 | Sergio Perez | Cadillac | 52 | + 1 Lap |
| 19 | Valtteri Bottas | Cadillac | 51 | + 2 Laps |
| 20 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 26 | Hydraulic |
| 21 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 24 | Mechanical |
| RET | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1 | Crash |
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