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As I sit here on Saturday contemplating the race that could see Kimi Antonelli crowned as the youngest F1 Champion, and the first Italian champion since 1953's Alberto Ascari title.

Points standing Saturday before the race:-

• Antonelli: 365 pts
• Russell: 242 pts (-123)
• Hamilton: 241 pts (-124)

With 5 races left there are 125 points available for 5 wins. For Antonelli not to win the 2026 title requires either Russell or Hamilton to win the 5 remaining races; and Antonelli to score no more than 1 point. Scoring 2 points, i.e. a ninth place finish will give him an unassailable lead.

Summary

In a race with a couple of safety cars and a red flag restart, Kimi Antonelli took 3rd place to share the podium with Verstappen and Hamilton. In so doing Kimi became the first Italian F1 champion since 1953 and became the youngest ever F1 champion, taking that record from Sebastian Vettel who was 23 when he won the title in 2010.

Toto Wolff was clearly exuberant that his decision to replace Lewis Hamilton with an unproven academy teenager for the 2025 season was vindicated. Interviewed as he walked towards the presentation ceremony he said: “Who is Kimi Antonelli? That is Kimi; and this is just the start...”.

Winning the title with 4 races to spare is a clear dominance for the now 20 year old Kimi. His team mate, driving the same car, is a full 150 points behind him. He's been consistent in achieving podium finishes even when his Mercedes was not the dominant Car. In 15 races so far, he has failed to score points only in Spain and he only took sprint race points at Silverstone. Kimi has an excellent chance of becoming the dominant driver of the coming decade.

The joy at Mercedes had a counterpoint in the discord at Ferrari. Hamilton's post race comment “...we need serious talks...” being a clear indicator of his discontent at the performance of his team mate Leclerc, and the Ferrari team; Lewis said that with correct team work they could have had a 1-2 for Ferrari. The announcement of a planned African GP in 2030 had Lewis enthusing that “it was his dream to race there”; will it be with Ferrari though one is tempted to ask.

Practice

Largely uneventful. Verstappen and Liam Lawson contested the same piece of tarmac at the hairpin, with neither prepared to simply 'give way' resulting in a side-swipe collision between the Red Bull and Racing Bull cars. Not sure what the RB sponsors thought, but the Race Stewards gave both drivers a 1 place grid penalty.

However, that paled into insignificance when compared to Valtteri Bottas' 50 place grid penalty. You'd need 2½ GPs to do that literally. Bottas to start at back of the grid.

Estaban Ocon, who is leaving Haas at the end of this season, had a radio disagreement with his race engineer during FP2. On his second outing he asked why he was on Medium tyres. His race engineer, Laura Mueller, told him it was because they were not good on his team mate (Oliver Bearman) earlier runs. Ocon exclaimed “No, you can't do this to me!”; but they did and Ocon was replaced for the rest of the Mexico GP by reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa. Speculation now that Ocon will not drive again this season and Haas will try to get their 2027 driver, Rafael Camara, free from his Ferrari test driver commitments so he can gain experience this year.

Watch this space!

Qualifying

Liam Lawson disqualified and lost his top 10 start position because of a technical infringement. The FIA are concerned that cars completing the lap with no battery charge left will unexpectedly slow dramatically and are a hazard to other cars completing their laps. They've mandated that crossing the line the cars must discharge their batteries in 3 distinct steps; thus giving much more progressive and predictable breaking. Lawson didn't do this. He used all his battery charge in the race to the line in Q3, and had zero charge left on completion. The DQ punishment meant he started behind the 50 place penalized Bottas!

• Quali 1

  Alonso was instructed to stop on track, and he parked the cat near a marshals exit. He stopped in a position that meant the marshals would have to do a 3-point turn to get the car of the circuit. RED Flag required at 7 minutes left. With most of the field losing the lap they were on, this meant all cars were in jeopardy, probably having only 1 lap to get a representative time. All the drivers demonstrated they could cope with the added pressure, and we ended with the regular Q1 tail enders:- 17-22= Albon, Alonso, Hirakawa,Stroll,Perez and Bottas.

• Quali 2 Eliminations in 11-16= Hulkenberg, Colapinto, Piastri, Bortoleto, Bearman and Sainz.

  Oscar Piastri in 13th was a bit of a surprise given his team mate Lando Norris was fastest in Q2.

• Quali 3

  A closely fought session ended with Lewis Hamilton achieving his first Ferrari pole; and his 1st pole since 2023. His margin over George Russell being a minuscule 0.009s. The gap from 1st to 10th was only 0.6; bodes well for a competitive race.

• Top ten Q3 positions:
  Hamilton, Russell, Leclerc, Antonelli, Verstappen (1 place penalty), Norris, Lindblad, Lawson (penalty to 22nd), Gasly

The Race

The first standing start results and the first flash point. Hamilton had a good start and lead into T1. Verstappen had a great start from 5th and overtook Russell for 3rd. Leclerc passed Russell and dove for the inside at T1. Leclerc and Hamilton jostled to T4 where Leclerc tried to pass Hamilton on the outside. His pace was too high to make the corner and he ran wide; his presence outside Hamilton compromised Hamilton's position, causing him to also run wide. Verstappen undoubted said thank you to Leclerc for disrupting Hamilton's line, and he easily passed to rise to 2nd place.

Leclerc declines to give the position back, partly one guesses because Max had overtaken Lewis, and he awaits the stewards decision. Not the normal 10s penalty, but only 5s penalty for Leclerc. Hamilton's radio comment:” but in clear air he'll clear that easily. He needs to give the place back. The stewards are basically handing Charles this win.”.

Lap 28 and Leclerc and Verstappen both make a pit stop. Leclerc's Ferrari cannot be touched for 5s (the penalty!) which leaves Verstappen 'taking candy from a baby!. Max is on his way out before the Ferrari mechanics can jack up Leclerc's car.

Lap 29 and Hamilton pits. As he predicted, the 5s penalty for Leclerc was not enough for him to swap places so he comes out in 3rd, behind Verstappen and Leclerc.

Lap 44 and Bottas' Cadillac suffers a suspension failure, throwing him at high speed into the barriers. Fortunately Bottas was able to walk away from the crash. The resultant Safety Car causing a flurry of cars pitting to put on soft tires for the last 27 laps. On Lap 45 the Safety Car is upgraded to a Red Flag; halting the race. On the restart, the stewards set the re-start grid to the last 'stable' track position, which because Gasly had not completed his lap was prior to Hamilton's pit stop. This means Hamilton is promoted to 3rd, behind Verstappen and Leclerc, but ahead of Antonelli.

At the stationary restart Verstappen and Hamilton are on the clean side sitting on the racing line. They both make good starts. Leclerc and Antonelli starting on the dirty side, with all the discarded tyre marbles off the racing line both suffer relatively poor starts. Hamilton passes Leclerc for 2nd almost immediately. Hamilton tries to pass Verstappen around the outside; but Max 'gets his elbows out' to keep Lewis behind him.

Leclerc, striving to regain 2nd hits the brakes hard and has a big lock up. His tyre flat spot does all the way through the rubber to expose its canvas carcass. Lap 48 and Antonelli overtakes Leclerc at T1. Surprisingly this tyre lasts to the end of the race.

Lap 59 sees Arvid Lindblad collide with Piastri and crash into the barrier. This results in another Safety Car whilst the car is removed and the barrier repaired. Lap 63 and racing resumes. With the rolling start, Hamilton is unable to exploit the slip-stream to overtake Verstappen. The Red Bull shows its inherent higher straight line speed to keep the Ferrari behind him. This performance difference continues to the end of the race. Hamilton able to gain during the slower sweeping corner sections; Verstappen able to pull away on the straights with better power performance.

The top positions are maintained to L71 and the chequered flag.

• 1st - Verstappen;
• 2nd - Hamilton,
• 3rd - Antonelli.

A 74th win for Max. The 3rd place for Antonelli gives him 18 pts. Antonelli has 380pts and 9 wins this season. Verstappen, his closest rival with 4 races to go has 261 points. With only 100 available for the last 4 races, the 119 lead is unassailable.

Congratulations to Kimi Antonelli for a dominant 2026 championship. The youngest driver to win the title; and the 3rd driver to do so in his sophomore season, [Juan Manuel Fangio, Jacques Villeneuve and Lewis Hamilton being other drivers to take title in their second season]

Mercedes have a 126 pt lead over Ferrari. There are 180 constructors points available to seasons end; so there remains the slightest of mathematical possibilities that Ferrari could overtake Mercedes. I'm expecting the constructors to be sealed at the next event in Brazil on 6th Nov.

Also expect to see several column inches of analysis and opinion around Ferrari team-work and Haas driver options.

Final Positions

• 1. Ver, 2. Ham, 3. Ant, 4.Lec, 5. Nor, 6. Rus, 7. Law, 8. Bor, 9. Had, 10. Hir, 11. Alb, 12. Sai , 13. Pia, 14. Hul, 15. Col, 16. Per, 17. Gas,
• DNF: 18. Lin, 19. Bea, 20. Alo, 21. Str, 22. Bot.

Next Race

The season continues with the next installment at :-

Brazilian GP at Interlagos - 6th November 2026

Lets hope for an enjoyable race