Kimi Antonelli Pulled Off A Miracle At Monza

Do you believe that Formula 1 can be romantic? Before immediately answering to the negative, at least consider Kimi Antonelli. He is freshly 20 years old, and just became the first Italian driver to win the Italian Grand Prix since Ludovico Scarfiotti did so in 1966. If your answer is still negative, and fair enough, at least consider that Antonelli achieved his victory by breaking the record for most overtakes during a Grand Prix in F1 history and after starting from P19 on the grid. Consider, too, that this is Monza we’re talking about. If the answer is still negative, well. Have you ever considered becoming Italian and seeing how that changes your perspective on the matter?

Before getting to Sunday, we must first go through Saturday, a fact that is true of the passage of time more generally and F1 race weekends specifically. Antonelli was a non-factor on Saturday by choice; with either the broader Drivers Championship picture in mind or the kind of confidence only accessible to people who just turned 20, he chose to tank an engine penalty in his overtake-happy home race. As a result, Antonelli spent most of qualifying on tractor duty and giving his Mercedes teammate, George Russell, a tow by providing a consistent slipstream.

The final qualifying shootout came between Russell, overwhelming race favorite, and Pierre Gasly in an Alpine. Gasly is one of the more successful of his cohort of Max Verstappen’s second drivers that Red Bull has ruined, which means that he has showed enough pace to stick around in F1, but not enough to emerge as a serious contender. Last year, Alpine was the worst team on the grid. This year, though the team remains haunted by Flavio Briatore’s presence, they have a more respectable place on the midfield. There was nothing in that rise to competence that would suggest how well they performed during qualifying this weekend. In Gasly’s specific case, his performance was a minor miracle. Through careful timing of his final lap and not setting a tire wrong, Gasly squeezed out the 0.060 seconds necessary to take pole position—the first of his career—away from Russell.