Race Report: Antonelli wins title, Verstappen wins in Mexico

Andrea Kimi Antonelli secured his first Formula 1 World Driver’s Championship making him the youngest in this history of the sport and the first Italian since Alberto Ascari 73 years ago! Kim finished third, behind Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton to make it a champions podium in the Mexican Grand Prix.

Win

A huge win for Kimi and Mercedes for securing his first world championship. The level of poise, patience and race craft Kimi had in 2026 was simply superlative and from a 20-year-old, it’s nearly unheard of. The 36th world champion is the first born in the 21st century. Italy hasn’t had a championship since Ferrari’s title in 2008!

A win for Max Verstappen and Red Bull for taking advantage of Ferrari’s intra-team driver battle to secure the win in Mexico. Max drove an amazing race in a car that, it could be argued, wasn’t the fastest on the circuit. Max has won Mexico six times now!

A win for Lewis Hamilton for his first pole for Ferrari this weekend and a P2 finish behind Max. The Ferrari battle with his teammate, Charles Leclerc may have cost him the race win but a P2 is a good result in the Constructors’ Championship.

update Both cars were giving penalties for yellow flag infringments and dropped out of the points! A win for Alpine who are locked in a battle for 5th in the constructors’ Championship by beating Racing Bulls with Franco Colapinto in P8 and Pierre Gasl in P10. Two cars in the points is a big help.

A win for Ryo Hirakawa for a P10 in his first race sitting in for Esteban Ocon at Haas F1. A great effort given Ollie Bearman suffered a DNF.

Fail

A fail for Ferrari who managed to spoil a win with intra-team battles. On that front, I think Charles had the pace to win had he not had a 5s penalty and Lewis had the pace to win had he not had the altercation.

A fail for Nico Hulkenberg who had a ragged race with a 10s penalty for punting Bearman. The team were running close to points but that ended the effort.

A big fail for Aston Martin with both cars out in the first laps.

A fail for Isak Hadjar who couldn’t get back to the points. He was punted by George Russell in the first lap and that wasn’t his fault but you’d have thought the Red Bull could get back to the points.

WTH

Wow, not sure what happened to Valtteri Bottas and his suspension failure. What a scary moment, glad he is ok.

If you had to script the best podium for Kimi’s first title, you couldn’t have picked a better lineup. Kim with Lewis and Max.

Pirelli Report:

DARIO MARRAFUSCHI – PIRELLI MOTORSPORT DIRECTOR

“Congratulations to Kimi Antonelli on winning the World Championship. It is a thoroughly deserved success, built on the consistency he has demonstrated throughout the season and sealed today with another outstanding performance, culminating in a podium finish in a race packed with drama alongside two World Champions.

Without the neutralisations, a one-stop strategy would have been the most competitive option for this Grand Prix. Both the Soft and Medium compounds proved capable of covering around half the race distance, making it possible to complete the event with a single tyre change. The C5 once again confirmed itself as the benchmark compound in terms of grip and driver confidence, although the performance gap to the C4 was very small, with both compounds showing similar levels of degradation. It was therefore no surprise that every driver chose the Soft for the final stint after the Safety Car, despite also having the Hard compound available.

From a technical perspective, tyre behaviour was very positive. We recorded no significant graining, and degradation remained within expected levels, proving lower than what had been observed on Friday.

A lock-up by Leclerc at the restart following the red flag also provided further evidence of the robustness of Formula 1 tyres. The tyre sliding across the asphalt caused particularly severe localised wear on the front-left tyre, bringing it very close to the internal structural layers.

This is certainly not a routine occurrence, but it is one that is consistently taken into account throughout Pirelli’s development and validation processes, including through rigorous indoor testing programmes. The ultimate objective is to ensure that the tyre maintains an appropriate level of integrity even under extreme conditions, allowing drivers to continue racing in complete safety.

The performance of the Soft compound was particularly interesting, as demonstrated by Antonelli’s lengthy stint. He completed 43 laps while maintaining very limited degradation and a competitive pace right through to the closing stages of the race.

The C3, meanwhile, was not considered by the teams because, under race conditions, it did not offer any performance advantage over the two softer compounds. Overall, the data collected confirmed a very clear picture, fully consistent with the simulations carried out before the event, both in terms of degradation and the competitiveness of the various strategic options.”

Mexican GP Results: