Kimi Antonelli, 20, Becomes F1’s Youngest Champion as Verstappen Wins in Mexico

Kimi Antonelli became the youngest F1 champion in history on Sunday, Nov. 1, finishing third at the Mexico City Grand Prix to clinch the 2026 drivers’ title for Mercedes at 20 years and 68 days old. Max Verstappen won the race for Red Bull, holding off Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton by 0.799 seconds at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.

Antonelli arrived in Mexico needing only a ninth-place finish to seal the championship, no matter where his two remaining challengers, Hamilton and Mercedes teammate George Russell, ended up, according to Formula 1. He did better than that, starting fourth and finishing on the podium with four rounds of the season still left.

A record that stood for 16 years

The Italian broke the mark set by Sebastian Vettel, who was 23 years and 134 days old when he won the first of his four titles with Red Bull in 2010, BBC Sport reported. Antonelli is also the first Italian world champion since Alberto Ascari in 1953 and only the third Italian champion overall, after Ascari and Giuseppe Farina, according to Mercedes. The team said he is the first graduate of its junior program to win the title, and that his crown is the 10th drivers’ championship for a Mercedes driver.

“I’m speechless. I’m trying to process what has just happened,” Antonelli said, according to Formula 1. “It’s been an incredible season, and to share this podium with Max and Lewis is truly incredible.”

The title came in only his second season. As a rookie in 2025, Antonelli scored 150 points, less than half of Russell’s 319, BBC Sport noted. This year he won nine Grands Prix: China, Japan, Miami, Canada, Monaco and Belgium in the first half of the season, then Italy, Spain and Austin after the summer break, Motorsport.com reported. Mercedes said Sunday’s third place was his 17th podium of 2026.

By the numbers: how far ahead Antonelli finished

Antonelli now has 380 points, according to the official 2026 drivers’ standings. That is 119 points more than second-place Verstappen (261), or about 46% more, and 130 points more than Russell (250), who drove the same car, according to TBR calculations from the Formula 1 standings. His total is already 230 points, or about 153%, higher than his full 2025 rookie haul of 150.

The age record moved by a wide margin. Antonelli clinched the title 3 years and 66 days younger than Vettel was in 2010, a TBR calculation from the ages published by BBC Sport and Sky Sports. Before Sunday, no driver had clinched a first title before the age of 23.

Verstappen wins a chaotic Mexico City Grand Prix

Hamilton started from pole, his first for Ferrari, ending a 1,197-day wait for a pole position, ESPN reported. On the opening lap, teammate Charles Leclerc challenged him around the outside, and both cars left the track at Turn 4. Leclerc cut across the grass to take the lead and received a five-second penalty, while Verstappen, who started fifth after a grid penalty, slipped past Hamilton into second.

Verstappen took the lead when Leclerc served his penalty during their pit stops on lap 28, the FIA said. A left-front suspension failure then sent Valtteri Bottas’ Cadillac into the barriers, bringing out a red flag that stopped the race for almost 40 minutes. Bottas was checked at the medical center and released without injury. At the standing restart on lap 47, Hamilton passed Leclerc for second, and Antonelli moved past Leclerc into Turn 1 for third.

A late safety car, called after Oscar Piastri and Arvid Lindblad collided with eight laps left, bunched the field once more. Verstappen held Hamilton off again to win in 2 hours, 20 minutes and 28.772 seconds over 71 laps, according to the official result. It was his third win of 2026 and his sixth in Mexico City. Verstappen has now won three of the last four Grands Prix and climbed to second in the standings, two points ahead of Hamilton, Formula 1 said.

Leclerc finished fourth, ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris. Russell, who started second, lost places at the start with what Mercedes described as a lack of energy deployment, then took a 10-second penalty for hitting Isack Hadjar’s Red Bull. He finished sixth and dropped to fourth in the standings. Liam Lawson, Gabriel Bortoleto, Hadjar and Haas debutant Ryo Hirakawa completed the points after post-race penalties reshuffled the order. Hirakawa, who replaced Esteban Ocon after second practice, was promoted from 13th to 10th and scored in his first Grand Prix.

Reaction: Ferrari frustration, Mercedes mixed feelings

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur criticized the first-lap fight between his drivers. “I’m having trouble swallowing it. It’s a lack of respect for all the people who work. Wasting a victory is hard,” he told Canal+, as quoted by Formula 1.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff told Sky Sports F1 the team had let Russell down with the technical issue at the start. “We have two drivers, we don’t have one,” Wolff said. “The car just didn’t work for him this year.”

Antonelli’s title capped a busy weekend for global sport. On the same weekend, Carlos Alcaraz won his first Vienna title, and on Sunday the Denver Broncos stopped Patrick Mahomes on the final play to beat the Chiefs, while Arsenal won 1-0 at Anfield.

Sources

• Formula 1: 2026 Mexico City Grand Prix race result
• Formula 1: 2026 drivers’ standings
• Formula 1: Mexico City lowdown, all the key moments
• FIA: Antonelli crowned F1’s youngest world champion as Verstappen wins in Mexico City
• Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team: race report
• BBC Sport: F1’s youngest champions
• Sky Sports: How Antonelli rewrote the record books
• Motorsport.com: Antonelli becomes youngest world champion
• ESPN: Verstappen wins Mexico City GP, Antonelli seals title