Kimi Antonelli overcomes a 30-grid deficit to win the Italian GP in a miraculous comeback

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Lee Young-ho = '20-year-old star' Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) overcame the penalty of '30 grid demotion' due to power unit replacement and rose to the top of the Formula One (F1) World Championship Italian Grand Prix (GP) with a double victory.

Antonelli performed a miraculous race in which he started from the 19th grid and was the first to receive the checkered flag in the 2026 F1 World Championship 13th round Italian GP final held at the Monza Circuit (5.793km, 53 laps) in Monza, Italy on the 6th (local time).

With this victory, Antonelli earned his 7th win of the season and accumulated 267 driver ranking points, widening the gap with 2nd place George Russell (Mercedes, 201 points) to 66 points, continuing his strong move toward becoming the first driver's champion in his career.

This is the first time that Italian Antonelli, who is in his second year on the F1 stage, has won the Italian GP, ​​his home stage.

It has been 60 years since Antonelli that an Italian driver won the Italian GP since Lodovico Scarpiotti took the top spot in the 1966 competition.

In addition, it is only the second time in F1 history to win the final after starting from 19th or lower on the grid, after John Watson (Great Britain), who started from 22nd and won at the 1983 West GP in the United States.

It was literally a miraculous comeback victory.

Antonelli placed 7th in the preliminaries, but was punished with a '30 grid demotion' after exceeding the power unit parts replacement limit.

Accordingly, Antonelli started the race with the disadvantage of starting grid number 19 in the final in which 22 participants participated.

A major accident occurred early in the finals.

On the 3rd lap, Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) hit the barrier hard and a red flag (race suspension) was issued, and the race resumed with Russell in the lead.

Antonelli, who had steadily risen in the rankings, overtook Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), and Oscar Piastri (McLaren) in succession until lap 16, rose to second place, and then joined the race for the lead, going back and forth with Russell.

The two Mercedes drivers competed fiercely in speed from laps 17 to 24, and reached an inflection point in the game when the 'Virtual Safety Car' (VSC) was issued on lap 28.

Antonelli pitted on lap 29 and changed tires, but Resel remained on the track and continued the race.

Antonelli, taking advantage of the tire change, overtook Piastri on lap 37 and rose to second place, laying the foundation for a comeback victory.

Finally, Antonelli overtook Russell on lap 50 and took the lead, completing a miraculous feat by beating Russell by 3.857 seconds and crossing the finish line first.