San Francisco Frontiers - Sensational Antonelli wins Italian GP from back of grid

The 20-year-old Mercedes driver, from nearby Emilia Romagna, claimed his seventh win of the season to extend his lead in the drivers' title race as he seeks to become Italy’s first world champion since Ferrari's Alberto Ascari in 1953.

He is the first domestic winner of the Italian GP since Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966.

In a thrilling, helter-skelter race of wild yo-yo overtaking moves, Antonelli came home 3.857 seconds ahead of his team-mate and title rival George Russell, who is now 66 points adrift in the championship, with four-time champion Max Verstappen third for Red Bull.

For the impassioned Italian crowd, his win was some consolation for their disappointment in seeing Ferrari endure a disappointing flop with Charles Leclerc crashing out on lap two, and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton finishing sixth behind the McLaren pair of world champion Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

Antonelli had started at the back of the grid after taking penalties for power-unit changes, but showed searing pace throughout as he carved through the field – benefitting from an early red flag stoppage -- before outracing Russell to win.

"Unbelievable!" said an emotional Antonelli.

"I'm so happy, I could never have imagined to be here today, but we pulled it off.

"After the second restart I knew I was up there and could have had a shot for the win.

"I believed in it, especially when I was behind George, but it was really difficult to break away with the tow being so strong."

Alpine's maiden pole sitter Pierre Gasly finished seventh ahead of Racing Bulls' rookie Arvid Lindblad, Franco Colapinto in the second Alpine and Yuki Tsunoda of Racing Bulls.

Antonelli was the first Italian to win at Monza since Ludovico Scarfiotti of Ferrari scored his solitary triumph in 1966 but it is a massive blow to Russell's hopes of regaining ground in the championship.

"Huge congratulatons to Kimi, an incredible result from him," said the Briton.

"I knew he was going to be in the mix when I saw he was P5 and P4 on the leaderboard at the beginning... I was struggling on the tyres, but I'd have loved to be P1 today."

- Ferrari fail -

The race started in dramatic fashion when Hamilton was forced off by teammate Leclerc.

The Monegasque, who is a two-time winner at Monza, then lost control on the exit of the Parabolica at the end of lap two, going straight into the gravel and flying side on into the tyre barriers.

Leclerc stepped out of the car, looking winded but otherwise unhurt.

The race was red-flagged with Russell in the lead, having overtaken pole-sitter Pierre Gasly of Alpine.

Antonelli, who began at the back of the field in 19th after exceeding the permitted number of power unit changes, had already moved his way up to 12th. Once the race restarted, he continued to pick his way through the field.

On lap 18, he hit the front for the first time but that was the start of a desperate dogfight with Russell.

Antonelli benefitted from a 'free' tyre change during a virtual safety car on lap 29 coming out on a fresh sets of mediums while Russell was left out on track with his hard tyres.

A 15-second lead quickly evaporated and after a botched overtaking effort on lap 49, Antonelli finally slipped past Russell a lap later and eased his was through the final three laps to take chequered flag.

R.Baker--SFF