George Russell’s title hopes in tatters as Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli wins Italian Grand Prix to extend his championship lead – despite starting 19th

Kimi Antonelli came from 19th on the grid to win the Italian Grand Prix, all but ending the title hopes of George Russell, who started second and finished second.

In triumphing on a strategy that favoured him rather than his Mercedes team-mate Russell, Antonelli, aged 20, became the first Italian to win his home race since the black-and-white days of Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966.

A pivotal moment came on lap 28, when Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin broke down. A virtual safety car was deployed. Antonelli was called in, offered the chance for a cheap stop to move from hard tyres to mediums.

He came out flying but 14 seconds behind race leader Russell, who had stayed out and was thus handed the task of making his harder rubber last to the end with an ever-diminishing advantage.

At times, the to-be-winner Antonelli lapped nearly a second quicker than Russell and it was a matter of whether he would close the deficit to the Briton by the 53rd and concluding lap.

It set up a grandstand finish. With 10 laps remaining, the 20-year-old was 4.7sec back. It looked bleak for Russell. It was going to come down to the last nervous moments. Or not quite as long as that, in fact.

He was told: ‘Let’s take no risks. Let’s bring it home.’

Antonelli arrived on Russell’s gearbox on lap 49. They skirmished at the first corner. All fair. Russell went deep. Antonelli ran into the gravel. Russell kept the lead. But a lap later Antonelli did what was now increasingly looking like the inevitable at Variante Ascari. He took the lead, and that was that.

His Mercedes was fast but it was also a brilliant drive, albeit helped by having a strategy that was most useful to him.

An early shunt brought about by Charles Leclerc’s huge shunt on lap two got him on to hard tyres under the red-flag opportunity. Russell moved from mediums to hards. He was not helped by this, though, arguably he should have been far enough up the road by some stage never to have been under threat. He had, after all, started 17 places ahead of Antonelli.

The Mercedes garage hailed the win as you would expect – unbridled emotion. Antonelli is their favoured son. Russell, who finished 3.8sec back from him, is not. He is also 66 points back from Antonelli and has no momentum.

It is almost impossible to see a way back for him.

Max Verstappen, for the record, finished third. Lando Norris was fourth and Oscar Piastri fifth. Lewis Hamilton was sixth for Ferrari.

It was a yo-yoing race, a good show in some ways but one that revealed not only the strengths but frailties of the new regulations introduced this year which allow one car to pass with a boost and then be repassed as their electric charge falls off.

You don’t need to chuck it down the inside and provide a moment you will remember. It was silly at times, but will have played well with audiences that seek instant gratification.

Early, Leclerc was left sitting in pain after his dramatic 160mph crash.

The Ferrari favourite lost control of his car at the final bend, the Parabolica, as he duelled with Piastri for fourth place.

Leclerc’s impact with the wall was severe with only a short portion of gravel to slow his trajectory into the hoardings, which he thudded side-on.

The Monegasque soon jumped out of the car but then sat disconsolately on the grass as he was comforted by a marshal before being taken away in the medical car. He was feeling his neck as he went for treatment. Ferrari said he had been released from the medical feeling ‘OK’.

The race was red-flagged for 30 minutes and some fans in the grandstands cried at the huge blow for their team.

By this point, Leclerc had already squeezed Hamilton on the second part of the opening chicane and was driving somewhat erratically. Hamilton was furious, saying: ‘Charles pushed me off.’ The seven-time world champion, who started fourth, fell down to 10th place.

Russell was leading the race for Mercedes at this point when the race was suspended after passing pole man Pierre Gasly, who was to finish seventh for Alpine, on the main straight at the end of the first lap.

Leclerc’s stricken car was taken away by crane and the ding-donging began again.