Kimi Antonelli's stunning victory in the Italian Grand Prix from 19th on the grid will go down in Formula 1 folklore - and, remarkably, his team boss Toto Wolff said that he had seen it coming on Saturday.
After Sunday's race, Wolff said that beforehand he thought that one of his two drivers was going to be standing on the top of the podium.
It was an eye-opening statement given they started the race 17 places apart on the grid, George Russell on the front row alongside shock pole winner Pierre Gasly's Alpine; Antonelli on the penultimate row.
"I thought one of the two is going to win," Wolff said. "Either George, because he was on the front row, or Kimi because he's going to walk over water, here at Monza. And I felt that yesterday also."
Wolff was asked to explain why he felt a performance he was comparing to a miracle was on the cards.

#kimi #george #grid

Round 14 of the 2026 Formula 1 season heads to the new Madring circuit, for the Spanish Grand Prix, from 11-13 September.
Championship leader Kimi Antonelli came back from 19th on the grid for a spectacular win in front of his home fans at the Italian Grand Prix.
In another surprise during the weekend, Alpine's Pierre Gasly managed to secure the first pole position of his career on Saturday.
Antonelli was joined by his Mercedes team-mate George Russell on the Monza podium, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen third.
It was a disappointing weekend for Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc crashing out of the race and Lewis Hamilton finishing sixth.

#madring

For the vast majority of the 2026 Italian Grand Prix, George Russell appeared completely in control of his own destiny. After pulling off a sharp opening-lap move on pole-sitter Pierre Gasly and surviving the Lap 3 red flag triggered by Charles Leclerc's crash, the Mercedes driver looked poised to convert his front-row start into a commanding victory at the Temple of Speed.
Instead, a critical strategic gamble under a late Virtual Safety Car completely upended the race, leaving Russell defenseless on fading rubber while his teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli charged from the back of the grid to **** the win.
Mercedes opted for an extreme tire management strategy with Russell, keeping him out on a single set of hard compound tires following the early race stoppage. But when a late Virtual Safety Car period neutralized the field, the Silver Arrows pit wall was forced to make a high-stakes tactical call: preserve track position or pit for fresher, faster rubber.
While Russell remained out on track to protect the race lead, Antonelli and Red Bull's Max Verstappen both dove into the pits for fresh tires. The stark difference in grip proved decisive in the final laps, as Antonelli rapidly eliminated the gap and swept past Russell to claim an astonishing victory from 19th on the grid.
Speaking post-race, Russell admitted he never expected the team to bring Antonelli in.

#russell

George Russell passes Pierre Gasly for lead of Italian Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton drops back after battling with Charles Leclerc
Championship leader Kimi Antonelli started 19th because of his own penalty
Antonelli 'disrupting rules of fandom' in Ferrari's Italy
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#george #lewis #hamilton

Going into the Italian Grand Prix, of all the storylines and narratives being composed, absolutely none of them involved Pierre Gasly and Alpine.
That's not dismissive of the French driver or the Enstone team, but Ferrari competing on home soil with a decent chance of victory and an Italian in Kimi Antonelli leading the championship was always going to take every column inch available this weekend.
So, when the FIA Court of Appeal report dropped at the start of first practice at Monza to inform the world that Gasly had lost his Monaco GP podium, a new and unexpected theme emerged. And then it snowballed.
First there was Flavio Briatore's questioning of the integrity of one of the judges, Filippo Marchino, about connections to McLaren – one of the lead proponents in the appeal – which McLaren team principal Andrea Stella vehemently took offence to, then there was the FIA Court of Appeal statement to dismiss comments of impartiality.
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#court

McLaren and Red Bull have won their appeals against the result of the Monaco Grand Prix after a controversy over multiple incorrect pit-lane speeding penalties.
The victory means Alpine's Pierre Gasly loses the podium he was awarded after an appeal by his French team that overturned two five-second penalties.
Gasly, who finished third on the road, is dropped back to the seventh place he received in the official results.
Alpine, unlike the other teams involved, did not serve the penalties in the race because they believed they had been applied incorrectly.
Red Bull's Isack Hadjar is returned to third place and McLaren's Oscar Piastri fourth, with Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad moving up to fifth and sixth.

#grand

Alpine's Pierre Gasly has lost his podium at the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix after McLaren won their appeal against the result, motorsports ruling body FIA said in a statement on Friday.
Gasly was demoted from third to seventh after the race on June 7 due to two separate five-second time penalties for speeding in the pit lane.
However, his position was restored after Alpine requested a right of review.
McLaren the appealed against that decision and the FIA's International Court of Appeal reinstated Gasly's penalty.
That means the driver dropped back to seventh place and Red Bull's Isack Hadjar returned to third place. McLaren's Oscar Piastri has moved up to fourth. Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes won the race.

#Third

McLaren and Red Bull have won their appeals against the result of the Monaco Grand Prix after a controversy over multiple incorrect pit-lane speeding penalties.
The victory means Alpine's Pierre Gasly loses the podium he was awarded after an appeal by the French team that overturned two five-second penalties.
That means Gasly, who finished third on the road, is dropped back to the seventh place he received in the official results.
Red Bull's Isack Hadjar is returned to third place and McLaren's Oscar Piastri fourth, with Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad moving up to fifth and sixth.
However, the verdict does not fully address the multiple effects of a series of pit-lane speeding penalties.

#penalties #multiple #speeding #place

Alpine's Pierre Gasly has lost his podium at the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix after McLaren won their appeal against the result, motorsports ruling body FIA said in a statement on Friday.
Gasly was demoted from third to seventh after the race on June 7 due to two separate five-second time penalties for speeding in the pit lane.
However, his position was restored after Alpine requested a right of review.
McLaren the appealed against that decision and the FIA's International Court of Appeal reinstated Gasly's penalty.
That means the driver dropped back to seventh place and Red Bull's Isack Hadjar returned to third place. McLaren's Oscar Piastri has moved up to fourth. Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes won the race.

#appeal #place #pierre

Kimi Antonelli is going to start the Italian Grand Prix from somewhere near the back of the grid, and Mercedes chose that outcome on purpose.
Team boss Toto Wolff confirmed after the Dutch Grand Prix that the championship leader will take a fresh power unit at his home race in Monza, triggering a grid penalty that could push him to the back row depending on how many components get swapped. It's a deliberate hit to a driver sitting on one of the healthier points cushions in recent memory, and it hands a very specific kind of opportunity to Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc heading into the one weekend of the year built for making up ground through raw speed rather than clever strategy.
Under F1's power unit rules, teams get a fixed allocation of components for the season, and going even one over that limit on a single part triggers an automatic grid penalty the next time it's used. Antonelli's retirement in Barcelona earlier this year, an electrical failure that erased a big chunk of his points lead in one afternoon, is why Mercedes decided a scheduled penalty beats another unscheduled DNF. Wolff didn't dress it up when he explained the choice: "With Kimi, we're taking the full thing. Our calculations say that that's the best track to take it. Obviously, algorithms don't take their nationality into consideration. We're here to fight for a championship and not get the most PR."
Monza's reputation as the easiest track on the calendar to recover lost ground is part of that math. Pierre Gasly won there from tenth in 2020, Daniel Ricciardo won from a midfield slot the following year, and Max Verstappen took victory in 2022 after starting five places back. We covered just how thin these allocations have gotten across the grid after the Belgian Grand Prix, when a single weekend produced a 30-place penalty for Isack Hadjar and 10-place drops apiece for Lando Norris, Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz, all for the same rule Antonelli is about to run into at Monza.
Recovering from the back isn't quite the free pass it used to be, though. DRS is gone under the 2026 regulations, replaced by a manual override system that only unlocks within a fixed distance of the car ahead and draws from a battery that's already stretched thin at a circuit with almost no meaningful braking to recharge it. Monza asks cars to scavenge energy at full throttle instead of under braking, which is a very different proposition for a driver trying to slice through traffic than it was in the DRS era. Antonelli might still make Monza look easy. He just won't have quite the same tools to do it with.

#prix #back #penalty #take

Formula 1's Dutch Grand Prix has been red-flagged after one lap following an enormous accident for home hero Max Verstappen.
At the end of lap 1 on a damp circuit, Verstappen lost control of his Red Bull as he tagged the white line on the inside of Zandvoort's final turn - the banked, flat out Luyendyk corner leading onto the main straight.
Verstappen veered head on into the outside wall, before his car crossed the track and came to a stand still on the inside.
The Dutchman soon reported he was "OK" and apologised to his team for ending his race early.
Verstappen was fortunate not to be collected by any other cars, with Alpine's Pierre Gasly taking avoiding action, while in the background Audi's Gabriel Bortoleto also narrowly avoiding a huge accident after spinning in front of his team-mate Nico hulkenberg.

#avoiding #formula #bull

Alpine's Pierre Gasly has received no further action for an alleged unsafe release during Dutch GP Qualifying. The Frenchman, who qualified P11 in Zandvoort, was released directly ahead of Audi's Gabriel Bortoleto during Q1 but upon review has avoided punishment.
Relief for the Enstone team, who have brought a major package to the Dutch GP, more upgrades than any other team this weekend, with Gasly the sole Alpine driver sporting the eight aero updates. His teammate Franco Colapinto qualified P14, and will receive the upgrade package next time out at Monza.
Meanwhile, Audi have looked impressive so far this weekend at Zandvoort, with Bortoleto qualifying P8. His teammate Nico Hulkenberg, however, will line up outside the points positions on Sunday, after qualifying P13.
Photo: Race Pictures
Photo: Race Pictures

#gasly #package

The FIA has come down hard on Pierre Gasly, handing him a three-place grid penalty for Sunday's British Grand Prix after finding him guilty of impeding Lance Stroll during qualifying.
The stewards accepted that Gasly had been left without the usual radio warning because of a technical issue with the FOM equipment, a point that was confirmed during the hearing. They also took into account that he had been carrying out radio checks and believed the car behind was not on a timed lap.
Despite those mitigating circumstances, the stewards ruled that the lack of a radio warning did not remove the driver's responsibility to avoid impeding another car. After reviewing the available evidence, including the dashboard information available to Gasly, they concluded that he had unnecessarily impeded Stroll and imposed the standard three-place grid penalty. Below is the full stewards explanation.
"STR was on a timed lap in Q1. GAS was on an in lap and, on the approach to Turn 15, remained on the racing line at a slow speed, requiring STR to move off line in order to pass.
Photo: Race Pictures

Liam Lawson held on to his point for finishing eighth in the British Grand Prix sprint race after receiving a warning for moving in front of Isack Hadjar under braking - as Hadjar told stewards that it was not worth a penalty.
Lawson had moved into the top eight after Hadjar slipped down the order on the opening lap, and after clearing a fast-starting Pierre Gasly. With Hadjar catching in the latter stages, however, Lawson had his work cut out to keep the Red Bull behind.
Hadjar attempted to put a move on Lawson on the penultimate lap to reclaim control of the final point on the entry to Stowe corner but found Lawson chopping across his bow to resist the Frenchman's efforts.
This was noted and investigated as an 'abnormal change of direction', but Lawson escaped any further penalty; he finished seven tenths clear of his former Racing Bulls team-mate to maintain the final point on offer.
The FIA stewards' report declared that although the change in direction was enough to earn a warning, Hadjar defended Lawson by stating that he had been given enough room.

Austria is up next for Formula 1, and Mercedes will lead the field to the green flag. George Russell won the pole for the 2026 Austrian Grand Prix this weekend. Charles Leclerc will join Russell on the front row on Sunday after a blazing lap. It is Russell's fourth pole position of the 2026 Formula 1 season.
Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli will follow the two drivers on the second row. Most notably, Pierre Gasly, Gabriel Bortoleto, Oliver Bearman, Nico Hulkenberg, Carlos Sainz, Alexander Albon, and Fernando Alonso all qualified 11th or worse for Sunday's event.
The full Formula 1 starting lineup for the race in Austria is available below.
No. 63 George Russell (Mercedes)
No. 16 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

Alpine is reportedly going to wait until the summer before they make a decision on the future of its second seat, which is currently occupied by Franco Colapinto.
In the year, Colapinto has 16 points in seven races, finishing in the points four of those times. He has been quite bright over the recent run of races, looking to get a handle on the regulations.
In comparison to his much more experienced teammate, Pierre Gasly, Colapinto is holding his own. Gasly has 41 points over those same seven races, with one DNF to his name.
His ability to stay close to Gasly and deliver points on multiple occasions puts him in a better spot.
He has left a lasting impression on executive advisor Flavio Briatore

Mercedes have withdrawn their appeal against George Russell's time penalty at the Monaco Grand Prix earlier this month.
Russell was one of five drivers punished for pit-lane speeding in the principality on June 7, and a failure by Mercedes to serve his penalty correctly meant he was also hit by a drive-through sanction which dropped him out of the points.
Championship leaders Mercedes served a 'right of review' when Alpine's Pierre Gasly had his Monaco podium reinstated after Formula One's governing body accepted there were inaccuracies over the pit-lane speeding measurements.
Gasly had been demoted from third to seventh after he was given two separate five-second time penalties.
McLaren, whose driver Oscar Piastri had already served time penalties for the same offence earlier in the race, and Red Bull have lodged separate protests with the FIA Court of Appeal and they are ongoing, but Mercedes have opted not to pursue the matter.

The FIA announced on Thursday that Mercedes had withdrawn its request to review the Formula 1 Monaco GP results, with the team confirming the decision on Friday morning.
In its statement, Mercedes explained that, following discussions with the FIA and Formula One Management, it had concluded that pursuing the request would not achieve any positive outcome for either the team or the sport.
Mercedes only requested a review of the Monaco GP results following the reinstatement of Pierre Gasly's third place. That came after Alpine challenged the race results immediately after the finish and successfully proved that the two penalties Gasly received in Monaco for pitlane speeding were incorrect. The crucial element that led to that outcome was an admission from FOM, the official timing systems supplier of the championship, that the measurements used in Monaco were incorrect.
Read Also:
Monaco results overturned, teams protesting, new hearings scheduled – what is going on?

Alpine, which successfully won the review over Pierre Gasly’s penalty, now owns a third-place finish this season at the Monaco Grand Prix.
However, Alpine does not yet have the trophy, as Red Bull claims it is back in France and in Isack Hadjar’s possession.
Hadjar did not cross the line in third place; rather, it was given to him after the fact, following Gasly’s penalties being enacted.
Alpine and Gasly challenged the penalties to the FIA and then managed to get them overturned, marking a big victory for the French racing team.
With the team not having won the trophy yet, Sky Sports F1 reporter Ted Kravitz shared that Alpine and its executive, Flavio Briatore, were not pleased about not having it back.

Mercedes have asked governing body the FIA for a right of review of the decision to overturn Pierre Gasly's penalty at the Monaco Grand Prix.
The Frenchman was demoted to seventh place after the race by two five-second penalties for exceeding the pit-lane speed limit.
On Friday, it was announced that Gasly was being returned to third place in the race following a successful appeal by his Alpine team.
The stewards' verdict revealed an error with measuring the pit-lane speed limit. This affected five drivers, who were also penalised.
Among them was Mercedes' George Russell who was dropped from third place at the time to 12th as he was given a drive-through penalty for failing to properly serve his pit-lane speeding penalty.