Antonelli becomes Formula One's youngest world champion with third place in Mexico; Verstappen wins

Update (2 Nov 2026): Kimi Antonelli has won the Formula One world championship by finishing third at the Mexico City Grand Prix, becoming the youngest champion in the sport's history. Max Verstappen won the race, and this article has been rewritten to reflect the race result.

Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli became Formula One world champion on Sunday by finishing third at the Mexico City Grand Prix. Red Bull's Max Verstappen won the race. Antonelli's title was reported by Anadolu Agency, TASS, BBC Sport, the Guardian and ESPN.

Antonelli is 20 years old and is the youngest world champion in Formula One history. He takes the record from Sebastian Vettel. He is also the first Italian to win the drivers' title since Alberto Ascari in 1953.

According to BBC Sport, Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton finished second, and the first three finishers crossed the line within less than two seconds of each other. The BBC also reported that the win was Verstappen's third in four races.

The race

Hamilton started from pole position, with Mercedes' George Russell second and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc third on the grid. Antonelli started fourth after Verstappen received a one-place grid penalty for a clash with Liam Lawson in Friday practice.

According to BBC Sport, Leclerc took the lead on the first lap. He passed Hamilton around the outside at the Turn Four/Five chicane, going onto the grass and cutting the corner. Verstappen then passed Hamilton into Turn Six for second place. The BBC reported that Leclerc received a five-second penalty. It said the standard penalty is 10 seconds, but the stewards took into account as mitigation that Hamilton had also gone off the track.

The BBC reported that Valtteri Bottas' Cadillac crashed on lap 45 when its front suspension failed under braking for Turn One. This brought out a safety car and then a red flag while the barriers were repaired, followed by a 25-lap run to the finish. According to the BBC, Verstappen and Hamilton made contact at the first chicane at the restart, and Leclerc locked his left front wheel. Antonelli passed Leclerc at the start of the next lap.

A second safety car came out with 12 laps to go after Arvid Lindblad crashed his Racing Bulls car following a collision with McLaren's Oscar Piastri, according to the BBC. The BBC also reported that Russell finished sixth after a 10-second penalty for tipping Red Bull's Isack Hadjar into a spin on the first lap, and that Leclerc finished ahead of Lando Norris despite a flat-spotted tyre.

The reports reviewed by Vocemundi do not include a full classification beyond the top three, or final championship points totals.

The title

According to BBC Sport, Antonelli was 20 years and 68 days old when he won the title. The BBC said his record beat Vettel's mark by three years and 67 days. ESPN reported that Vettel won his first title in 2010, aged 23 years and 134 days. The BBC reported that Antonelli clinched the championship with several races remaining. The reports do not say how many.

According to ESPN, Antonelli won the title in his second Formula One season, having replaced Hamilton at Mercedes in 2025. ESPN reported that his first victory came at the Chinese Grand Prix in March, starting a run of five consecutive wins that gave him a championship lead he never lost. The Guardian said that race, held in Shanghai on 15 March, was the second of the 2026 season. Russell, Antonelli's teammate, won the season-opening race in Australia, according to ESPN.

ESPN reported that Antonelli also won in Belgium, Spain and Italy. At Monza he won from 19th on the grid, becoming the first Italian to win his home race since Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966. According to the Guardian, Antonelli finished 16th at the British Grand Prix but still led the standings by 25 points afterwards. The Guardian said his third place in Singapore on 11 October gave him a mathematical chance of clinching the title at the next race. It reported that he then won the US Grand Prix, but that results behind him postponed his title celebration.

ESPN reported that Antonelli is the 36th different driver to win the world championship. It said he is the second consecutive first-time champion, after McLaren's Lando Norris in 2025. According to ESPN, he is Italy's third Formula One world champion, after Giuseppe 'Nino' Farina in 1950 and Alberto Ascari in 1952 and 1953.

Hamilton's weekend

Hamilton's pole on Saturday was his first Grand Prix pole for Ferrari and the 105th of the seven-time champion's career. It was his first since the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix. According to the BBC, it came on his 43rd start for the team. Hamilton is in his second season with Ferrari, after a difficult first season.

After the race, Hamilton spoke about problems at Ferrari following the incident involving Leclerc, according to BBC Sport and ESPN.

Haas driver change

According to the Guardian, Haas announced on Saturday that Ryo Hirakawa would replace Esteban Ocon for the rest of the weekend, without giving a reason. The Guardian reported that Ocon had an angry exchange with his race engineer, Laura Müller, during Friday's second practice.

What is disputed

• The Guardian describes Hamilton as 41. In remarks quoted by the BBC before the race, Hamilton referred to questions about whether "a 40-year-old" still had it.
• The Guardian refers to unidentified media reports of a violent altercation between Ocon and his team. Ocon denies that any physical violence was used.
• BBC Sport's stated record margin of three years and 67 days cannot be independently checked against ESPN's figure for Vettel's age, because the reports do not give Antonelli's birth date.

What each side says

On team radio, Antonelli said, according to the BBC: "Thank you so much. We did it. We did it." After qualifying on Saturday, he said the weekend's stakes had affected him, according to the BBC: "Definitely I have been a bit more tense than usual, also that played a big factor." His other post-race comments are not included in the reports.

According to BBC Sport and ESPN headlines, Hamilton said Ferrari have "big problems" and need "serious talks" after the incident with Leclerc. The BBC quoted him as saying: "We've got big problems". His full remarks are not included in the reports, and there is no response from Leclerc or Ferrari.

According to the BBC, Verstappen and Hamilton said over team radio that Leclerc had to give the lead back after the first-lap incident. Leclerc expressed concerns over whether his flat-spotted tyre would last to the finish.

Before the race, Russell said, according to the BBC: "In my mind, he's kind of already won the championship."

In a statement quoted by the Guardian, Ocon said he "categorically" rejected reports "suggesting that any form of physical violence was used".

The reports include no statement from Mercedes and no official FIA or stewards' documents.

Analysis

Antonelli's title ends a season in which, according to the reports reviewed by Vocemundi, he led the standings from an early run of wins and kept that lead through weaker results such as 16th at the British Grand Prix. Securing the championship with several races remaining suggests a clear margin over his rivals, though the reports do not give final points totals or the number of races left. The age record is confirmed by several outlets, but the exact margin over Vettel cannot be independently checked from the information available. For Ferrari, Hamilton's first pole for the team was followed by a first-lap clash with his teammate and post-race remarks about "big problems". Without his full comments or any response from Leclerc or the team, the extent of any internal difficulties remains unclear. At Haas, the reasons for Ocon's removal for the weekend have still not been explained in the reports.

Produced by the Vocemundi newsroom with AI assistance.