The first Italian champion since 1953 sobbed with joy over the team radio as he took the chequered flag at the high-altitude Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, with his overall lead now an unassailable 119 points.
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton started from pole position and finished a close second – after clashing with teammate Charles Leclerc – on an afternoon of drama with two safety cars, multiple crashes and an agonizing 33-minute halt with 25 of the 71 laps remaining.
“Get in there, Kimi. Champion of the world,” said his race engineer Peter Bonnington, a regular target for the young driver’s practical jokes.
“We did it, thank you so much,” gasped the Italian, whose parents and sister were there to embrace him when he stepped out of the car. He was then mobbed by his pit crew.
The previous youngest champion was Germany’s Sebastian Vettel, who took the first of his four world titles with Red Bull at 23 years and 134 days in 2010.
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Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli celebrating after finishing third in the Mexico City race and clinching the 2026 Formula 1 World Championship. Photo by Reuters |
“I’m speechless. I’m trying to process what has just happened,” said Antonelli in comments to the crowd.
“It’s been an incredible season, and to share this podium with Max and Lewis is truly incredible. And looking forward to some more battles in the future.
“This weekend I did feel a bit more tense, but I’m just so happy that we got it done, and now we can enjoy the rest of the season,” he added, with an Italian flag wrapped around his shoulders on the podium and spraying champagne with abandon.
The last Italian champion was Alberto Ascari, 73 years earlier.
“On the last lap, I just backed off because I just couldn’t see the track. I was getting emotional,” Antonelli said at a news conference later.
“So it was just good to bring it home.”
Verstappen goes second overall
Leclerc finished fourth, McLaren’s outgoing champion Lando Norris was fifth and Antonelli’s teammate George Russell only sixth in a race he had to win to have any chance of staying in contention.
That also meant Verstappen went second in the overall standings, with Hamilton third and pre-season favorite Russell plummeting to fourth and 130 points behind Antonelli.
Mercedes have 630 points in the constructors’ standings to Ferrari’s 504 and could clinch that title in Brazil next weekend.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was seventh at the flag but was then handed a 10-second penalty for causing a collision and demoted to 13th.
That initially moved Franco Colapinto to seventh and his Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly to ninth, but both later lost their points when they were handed 10-second penalties for going too fast under yellow flags.
The post-race penalties moved Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson up to seventh, Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto to eighth, Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar to ninth, and allowed Ryo Hirakawa to score a point in 10th on his Haas debut.