Kimi Antonelli clinched his first world title and became the youngest champion in Formula 1 history by finishing third at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Antonelli finished behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton, on a day when tensions at the Italian team between the seven-time champion and team-mate Charles Leclerc came close to boiling over.
Antonelli drove a composed race amid some hectic action involving the other front-runners in a grand prix interrupted by a red flag that led to a 25-lap sprint to the finish.
The Italian spent the closing laps watching Hamilton try to get close enough to pass Verstappen after the two had made contact at the first chicane at the restart.
But Hamilton found it impossible to get his Ferrari close enough to Verstappen to try to pass and ended the day frustrated and feeling a win had slipped through his fingers as a consequence of Leclerc's aggression on the first lap.
That was a secondary story on the day Antonelli made history, smashing Sebastian Vettel's previous record for being youngest champion by three years and 67 days at 20 years and 67 days old.
Antonelli had tears mixed with laughter over the radio on the slowing down lap as he proved initially incapable of talking when his team told him he was world champion.
After he half-composed himself, he said: "Thank you so much. We did it. We did it."
The key stories of the race were:
Antonelli delivering the title with several races to go in a season he has taken by storm
Tension at Ferrari after Leclerc's successful attempts to grab the lead on the first lap led to controversy and unhappiness at the team
Verstappen benefitting from the internal battle to take his third win in four races.
More to follow.
Source: BBC Sport · Andrew Benson
At a glance
- Topic
- World
- Country
- 🇬🇧 GB
- Publisher language
- EN
- Added to Allnira