Antonelli dominates Monaco to break Hamilton record

Andrea Kimi Antonelli turned the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix into his strongest title statement yet, winning from pole for Mercedes, leading every lap and setting the fastest lap to secure his first career grand chelem and become the youngest winner in the race’s history at 19.

The Italian had already laid the foundation on Saturday by taking pole with a final Q3 lap that beat Max Verstappen by 0.043s. In a race where track position is everything, Antonelli converted that advantage exactly as Monaco demands, controlling the pace from the front and extending his winning streak to five consecutive races.

What had looked like a straightforward victory changed sharply in the closing stages. Antonelli had built a lead of about 20 seconds when a red flag for track surface damage less than 10 laps from the finish wiped out his margin and set up a standing restart with Lewis Hamilton directly behind him.

Antonelli admitted that was the one moment he did not want. Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the Mercedes driver, said after the race: "To be fair, I wasn't super-keen on restarting; I didn't really want to restart, but once the notification came out, I just got my thoughts together and started to focus again." He said he looked at the data, worked on getting the tires back into the right temperature window, and reset for the launch.

He executed it cleanly. Antonelli held the lead into Turn 1 and never gave Hamilton a chance to turn the reset into a fight for the win. "Once I got away, I knew I was going to make it P1 into the first corner, and from that point, I just enjoyed the last few laps," he said.

Hamilton finished second and quickly went to congratulate the driver who replaced him at Mercedes. Before the podium ceremony, he joked to Antonelli, "Stai vincendo troppo amico mio, mi stai raggiungendo!"

The result carried weight beyond another trophy. Antonelli broke the Monaco age record Hamilton had set in 2008, when he won the race at 23, and he left Monte Carlo with a 66-point championship lead over Hamilton. George Russell finished 13th after a penalty-hit afternoon, leaving him 68 points behind his teammate as Antonelli’s grip on the 2026 title fight tightened again.