Antonelli claims maiden F1 victory with Mercedes 1-2 in Chinese Grand Prix
- Last updated: March 16, 2026 | 09:49 ..
An emotional Kimi Antonelli won a grand prix for the first time on Sunday in China ahead of Mercedes teammate George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, who made his maiden podium for Ferrari.
The 19-year-old Antonelli converted being the youngest pole-sitter in Formula One history into victory after both McLarens dramatically failed to start the Shanghai race.
Antonelli briefly lost the lead at the start but once he got back in front he controlled the pace to cruise home to the chequered flag by more than five seconds from Russell. Charles Leclerc was fourth in the second Ferrari.
"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 honoured 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.
"Getting on top of our problems is not easy," Verstappen said in Shanghai, having been sixth in the season-opening race in Melbourne.
"It would help if we would just have a normal start -- I've been every time dropping to last," he added.
The Dutchman was called by his engineer on team radio and told to retire his car on lap 46 because of a cooling issue.
"You can see that all over the grid," he said.
"I mean, some cars are not even starting. So yeah, it's all very complicated."
Oliver Bearman was fifth in the Haas, followed home by Pierre Gasly (Alpine) and Liam Lawson (RB).
Rounding out the top-10 points scorers were Isack Hadjar (Red Bull), Carlos Sainz (Williams) and Franco Colapinto (Alpine).
Current world champion Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri both failed to start because of separate issues that left McLaren without a car in the race.
Norris had an electrical problem that prevented him getting to the grid.
Piastri did get round to the grid but was pushed back into the garage a few minutes later with a different problem.
"Unfortunately we identified separate issues on both cars which prevented them from starting the Chinese GP," said McLaren in a statement.
It has been an awful start to the season for the constructors' world champions.
Last weekend only one McLaren took part in the opening race in Melbourne after Piastri crashed on his way to the grid, meaning the Australian is yet to race in a grand prix this season.
Agence France-Presse