Local hero Kimi Antonelli produced a sensational home victory at Monza, charging from P19 to win the Italian Grand Prix after hunting down Mercedes teammate George Russell.
Antonelli passed Russell for the lead on Lap 50 and claimed fastest lap, extending his Formula 1 Championship advantage. Max Verstappen completed the podium after briefly leading, while McLaren’s Lando Norris beat Oscar Piastri to fourth.
Lewis Hamilton recovered from an opening-lap setback to finish sixth after Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc crashed heavily on Lap 2.
Below is what teams and drivers had to say on Sunday evening after the 2026 Italian Grand Prix.
Mercedes: Phenomenal race by the team and both drivers
Kimi Antonelli, 1st
“This is a day that I will remember forever! It is for sure the most special win of my career so far. It is the best podium of the season and to see the full pit straight packed with people cheering and showing their support was a dream. The team did an incredible job today; they gave us an amazing car, and I can’t say thank you enough to everyone that has supported me and helped get me to this point.
“Even starting P19, I believed that this might be possible. On the first start, I made up a lot of positions and then realised we would get another good chance to gain positions after the red flag. That gave us a good chance, and I felt that I had the speed to fight for the win. We obviously gave up some positions under the Virtual Safety Car, but we had the pace on the Medium tyre to come back through and take the victory.”
George Russell, 2nd
“It’s frustrating to be so close to victory and not to achieve it but that is racing sometimes. Despite that, it is a brilliant result for the team, and I want to say massive congratulations to Kimi on winning his home race. There are many positives both I and the team will take away from this weekend. We showed great pace all weekend and fought hard throughout.
“The Virtual Safety Car was definitely a moment where the race changed. At the time, no one could have known what the right call was. The team chose to split strategy between the two cars and that was the best decision we could have made. We will never know how the race might have unfolded otherwise but Kimi did an amazing job. We raced each other hard but always with respect, and it was good fun fighting wheel-to-wheel for the win.”
Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“That was a phenomenal race by the team and both drivers. To take a 1-2 in Monza is a special feeling and victory will obviously be particularly sweet for Kimi at his home race. Both Kimi and George drove brilliantly and were comfortably faster than the rest of the field. Even though they were battling at moments, they kept it clean and brought home a big points haul which is incredibly valuable at this stage in the championship.
“Kimi’s drive was methodical from the very start. He kept his head down, took no risks on both starts and just one-by-one began picking off the cars ahead of him. We didn’t think his first set of Medium tyres would go to the end, so the Virtual Safety Car gave him a cheaper stop; his pace was superb to make the strategy work. For George, he ran the conventional strategy but was suffering with some vibrations on his front tyres in the closing stages. That limited his pace slightly, but he still drove strongly throughout to take P2.”
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
“Today was a well-executed race by the whole team and overall, a strong weekend throughout. Even with Kimi starting near the back, we were confident that he could move forward and potentially fight for the podium. We had done a lot of work to optimise our race pace on Friday and that showed in the Grand Prix. Both Kimi and George were significantly faster than their competitors and that was brilliant to see.
“The decision to either pit or stay out under the Virtual Safety Car was a close one. Ultimately, we decided to split strategies across cars to give ourselves the best chance of victory. Pitting Kimi was different to what most of the top 10 did but enabled us to cover threats from the opposition. At that point, the one-stop looked like the slightly stronger strategy, but Kimi’s pace really made the two-stop work. He carved past cars we thought he may struggle to pass; both Kimi and George were incredibly quick but once Kimi had caught, the tyre age offset meant he was able to pass quickly.
“Our pace this weekend has been encouraging. We know we are out of sync with our rivals in terms of updates so to take a 1-2 and increase our lead in the championships is pleasing. We know that Monza is an outlier as a track though and we cannot expect this form to continue into Madrid next week. That will be a much tougher fight; we will once again focus on executing a clean weekend, maximising the package we have and bringing home good points.”
Red Bull: Mercedes was a bit too fast
Max Verstappen, 3rd
“For us it was really good to be back on the podium, it is always a special one here in Monza. We had to fight for it and it wasn’t made easy, but I think it was overall a great performance from us. The main limitation is just that we were very quickly struggling with the deployment on the straights compared to the Mercedes-powered cars and there were a few issues still there. We pitted on to the Hard tyre and made our way up the field well. The tarmac had opened up in turn two and I drove around the corner, and suddenly just went straight because of the loose gravel of the tarmac. So then the McLarens got back into the overtake and it took some time to get it back again. Despite this, I think we did a great job, really maximised our performance and can be proud of the result today. I tried everything I could and even got into the lead during the race, which was exciting. We just couldn’t quite match the Mercedes cars unfortunately, but to be on the podium was an extremely good end to the weekend”.
Liam Lawson, 14th
“It was a pretty tough race. I had a really good first lap from the pit lane and made up quite a few places, but at the restart I lost part of my front wing after contact with Nico, so I had to box and lost over 30 seconds. It’s a shame because we had really good speed for the race, but with the way the strategies played out after the restart, nobody really boxed again apart from under the VSC, so unfortunately, we had too much time to make up. Without the issues, I think we had a pretty good chance to move through the field. Overall, it’s been a difficult weekend with the engine penalty, but we managed to solve a lot of the problems we were facing yesterday and had good speed today, so there’s a lot to take away from the weekend”.
Laurent Mekies, Team Principal
“Today was a well-deserved podium for Max and the whole Team. It was an intense weekend, but the race showed that our pace was fairly strong. Mercedes was a bit too fast for us but we were strong enough to beat Ferrari and McLaren on merits. It was probably our best race pace in a few weeks and a step in the right direction. We won’t be happy until we have that ultimate speed and we clearly still have some challenges to overcome, which may unlock more performance once we get to the bottom of them.
“Max has been incredible on track today. He made several very spectacular overtakes and defensive maneuvers and drove an aggressive strategy which led us to the podium. Liam showed good pace after a challenging start of the race from the back of the grid following his PU penalties. Contact with Nico meant we had to change his front wing and ultimately killed his chance for points.
“We take the improved pace and many learnings from Monza, and look forward to the very new circuit of Madrid in a few days.”
McLaren: We aim to fight consistently for wins
Lando Norris, 4th
“I’m happy with the race, finishing fourth was a good result for us today. The race was tough, the car was tricky, and I felt I drove well to maximise what we had. The second half was very strong, using the slipstream brought me back into the fight, and the battles with Lewis [Hamilton] and Oscar on the last lap were enjoyable. It was good, hard racing, and to come out ahead was satisfying.
“Despite the result, it’s clear we’re not where we need to be. This weekend highlighted our weaknesses – we’re lacking in general performance, especially in Qualifying, and our straight-line speed is a disadvantage. Even with recent wins, we still have a lot of work to do as a team. We know our strengths and weaknesses, and the challenge now is to improve for the rest of the year.”
Oscar Piastri, 5th
“I think this weekend was definitely the strongest I’ve felt for a while, and my pace was the most encouraging it has been in some time. It was a tough battle out there for sure. The racing was quite tricky with the back-and-forth effect, especially with Lewis [Hamilton] and then Max [Verstappen], which made it difficult to break away. You had to be quite smart in how you played it to avoid losing time.
“Ultimately, we were the third-quickest team today. Mercedes were clearly a lot quicker than everybody, and even Max had more pace than we anticipated. It was a good result for the team and probably the best result we could have got. It was an intense, hot race, but it’s felt much better and hopefully, we can continue this positive momentum going forward.”
Andrea Stella, Team Principal
“First of all, congratulations to Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Mercedes on their victory today, they did a very good job and fully deserved the result. Overall, it was a positive and strong weekend for the team. The race was incredibly tense and entertaining, and both Lando and Oscar showed the same high level of performance throughout. What we saw today was good, hard racing that delivered an exciting spectacle for the fans. We let them race, and while Lando’s moment on the grass looked dramatic live, our review suggests it was benign. This philosophy can be risky, and we’ll assess it carefully, always prioritising the team’s interests.
“Today’s race was executed at a higher standard than Qualifying, where starting P6 and P8 left us paying a price in a field that’s hard to overtake. The slipstream and energy management here mean even quicker cars struggle to pull away, and with Mercedes holding a clear step advantage, we weren’t in contention for the victory. Looking ahead to the final 10 races, we aim to fight consistently for wins, with circuits like Malaysia, Austin, and Brazil suiting us better, and upgrades coming for Baku.”
Ferrari: We are disappointed
Lewis Hamilton, 6th
“I know how hard everyone has worked to bring the latest updates to the car and I’m grateful for all the effort that continues to go in, both at the track and back at the factory. We knew we would be losing some performance on the straights and that made the race quite difficult for us. We would have liked to achieve a better result given all the work that has gone into the car, but we’ll take the learnings from this weekend, regroup and keep working. The team will keep pushing and we’ll look to come back stronger at the next race.”
Charles Leclerc, DNF
“It’s not the way we wanted our weekend to finish and we have to turn the page and look ahead to Madrid next week. A huge thank you to all our tifosi who have supported us here at our home race. We will make sure to come back stronger.”
Fred Vasseur, Team Principal
“We knew that this race would be challenging, especially in terms of our top speed, and that made it difficult for Lewis to fight and overtake the cars around him. Regarding Charles, on the second lap he was side by side with Oscar (Piastri) going into the last corner and went slightly onto the dirty side of the track, which was enough for him to lose the car and hit the barriers. It was a big impact, so the most important thing is that Charles is okay.
“Of course, we are disappointed that we could not give our tifosi the result we wanted after the incredible energy and support they have shown us throughout the weekend. I’m very happy for Kimi (Antonelli): this is a very important moment for him, and he deserves it. Our focus now immediately switches to next weekend and the new Madrid circuit.”
Alpine: A positive weekend for the team
Pierre Gasly, 7th
“It has been an incredible weekend. To be honest, we can all be very pleased with what we have achieved and finishing P7 today, best of the rest, top of the midfield is a really good achievement. Of course, we wanted more but we also have to be realistic and today’s result is probably the best we could have achieved with what we have right now. So, in the end, I am happy. We all dreamed after yesterday but it was back to reality today! I had two good starts and led a lap so that was what we wanted at the start. After that, the others closed me down and I was fighting with Lando [Norris], who has won the last two races, and, at the end, finished three seconds behind Lewis [Hamilton] who has also been strong recently. There are so many positives to take away and so many memories from the weekend, which I will remember for a long time. We’ll debrief as a team, take the points, which are so valuable to our Championship battle, and turn our focus to a new track in Madrid next weekend.”
Franco Colapinto, 9th
“After a race like today, with all the emotions and where we were in the context of the race, it’s difficult not to be frustrated. I’m frustrated with myself, as it could have been much better and for that I’m sorry to the team. We made a good start and made up some places and was running as high as fourth at the restart after the Red Flag early in the race. As a driver, when you’re fighting for these positions, it gives you an extra buzz and motivation and you want more, and not to lose it. I was following closely behind Max [Verstappen] and had a big snap going into Turn 6 and went deep into the gravel. Thankfully we avoided the barrier, but the car handling felt different afterwards, so we probably picked up some floor damage. After that, I just tried to re-focus and try to pick up points for the team. I’m disappointed with myself right now, but after some time to reflect, hopefully I can look at it as a good recovery.”
Flavio Briatore, Executive Advisor
“This weekend has been a positive one for the team, with some highs with the pole position yesterday and good points picked up for the team. We have narrowed the gap to Racing Bulls in the Championship and the performance we have brought to the car in recent races has put us in a more competitive position to fight on track. We were realistic of what was achievable today and ultimately the result was a fair reflection of our pace over a Grand Prix distance. Both drivers did a fantastic job over the weekend. It was great that Pierre had his moment to enjoy with the team yesterday, and Franco drove a brilliant race to recover and earn valuable points for the team.”
Racing Bulls: It was a solid weekend
Arvid Lindblad, 8th
“It was a positive race for us, and it’s great to get some points at one of our home races, with both myself and Yuki finishing in the top 10. After the restart, it was a bit of a lonely race for me once we were on the Hard tyre as there weren’t many overtakes to be made. Still, I think P8 was the best result we could have achieved today, and considering the pace Alpine sowed throughout the weekend, it was a good damage-limitation race for us. Looking ahead to Madrid next week, I drove the new track in the sim and it looks like a proper drivers’ circuit. I think it’s going to be fun, but it will also present some challenges, as it’s a very technical track. Full credit to the team for the work they’re doing, we have a strong car that has been competitive at every circuit so far, and that gives us a lot of confidence heading into the upcoming rounds.”
Yuki Tsunoda, 10th
”We had a good race today, I’m really happy with the result and to be back in the points. A massive thank you to everyone at VCARB for helping me get back up to speed so quickly. I was a little concerned about making the Medium tyres last until the end, but they behaved better than expected. I’m really enjoying learning all the new aspects of the car and continuing to build with every opportunity I get in the car. If any future opportunities come my way, then of course I’ll be ready. But the most important thing is that Isack continues to recover well, and I wish him all the best.”
Alan Permane, Team Principal
“It was a solid weekend for us. It’s always special to race in our home country and see the passion of the fans and have the support of our friends and families who joined us today in the grandstands. It wasn’t perfect, but we certainly maximised what we had and ended up with both cars in the points. A great job by both drivers and a special mention to Yuki who scores on only his second time in the car. We’ve got a quick turnaround, so we’ll head back to Faenza tonight, spend tomorrow debriefing and turn our attention to Madring which is approaching fast.”
Audi: Execution across the team was very good
Nico Hulkenberg, 12th
“Overall, we knew this was always going to be one of the more difficult weekends for us given the characteristics of the circuit, so considering that, it wasn’t a bad day. The second start was much better, and I managed to gain a few positions on the opening lap, but unfortunately, I lost out again shortly afterwards. We’ll need to review exactly what happened there and understand if there was something we could have done differently.
“From then on, it was a fairly straightforward race. We extracted what we could from the package today, and that’s about where we were this weekend. We’ll go away, review everything and turn our attention to Madrid.”
Gabriel Bortoleto, 11th
“I think I gave everything I had today. The start definitely didn’t make things easy for us, and once you lose positions on the opening lap, it’s always a challenge to recover. We pushed hard and probably used the tyres a bit too much, but that’s part of trying to fight back. The Racing Bulls were quite strong today, especially on the straights, and keeping up with them was more tough than expected.
“Still, the team gave me a car capable of fighting much closer to the points than we expected, and we’ll keep building from that heading into Madrid next week, where hopefully we’ll have better opportunities.”
Allan McNish, Racing Director
“We knew Monza would be one of the more difficult circuits for our car, so to come away with both cars finishing just outside the points is a solid effort. The starts made life difficult for both Nico and Gabriel, and with such a long run to Turn 1, losing positions early meant we were always fighting back.
“I think everyone did a good job to maximise what was available today. Both drivers recovered well, the strategy calls were strong, particularly around the Virtual Safety Car for Nico, and the pit crew once again delivered an excellent stop. The execution across the team was very good, and that’s something we can take with us as we head to Madrid.”
Williams: Nice to see we had some pace in the race
Carlos Sainz, 13th
“First of all, happy to see Charles unharmed after such a big accident. On our side, we executed a good race today and a strong weekend overall given our limitations. We put together a solid qualifying yesterday and had a good start and race pace today. Boxing under the VSC got us ahead of Ocon with a great pit stop from our mechanics and good pace allowed us to overtake Bearman at the end. I’m now very much looking forward to Madrid next weekend.”
Alex Albon, 17th
“We tried to go long and make it on one set of hard tyres after the red flag, but inevitably had some degradation towards the end of the race. It was worth the gamble to try. Race pace was the best we’ve had in awhile, due to taking a new PU this weekend, but it also shows what we have underneath us and what we have to do to get to where we want to be. We need to review the strategy from today and see what we could’ve done differently – we had a decent race, but there are always things to tidy up. Madrid will be a completely different track, and it won’t be easy, but we’re looking forward to the challenge.”
James Vowles, Team Principal
“It was nice to see we had some pace in the race to be able to move up the order. We lost a few positions on the opening laps before the restart, which may have proved costly for our ability to score points today. But definitely some more clues coming out of the race about where we need to be looking, and working hard and diligently to keep finding performance.
“With Carlos, he drove a good race from start to finish, and that was about the best we could have achieved after the restart. With Alex, solid pace all day. We were unable to stop him under the VSC without significant loss of time, so we had to keep him out to the end, but we noticed some concerning vibrations on the front left, and given we weren’t fighting for points, the priority at that point is making sure we have no issues.
“Congratulations to Kimi – a very impressive result to come from the back to the front. Now looking forward to Madrid in just a few days’ time.”
Haas: A very disappointing Sunday
Oliver Bearman, 15th
“I had a good start, both times, I made up a few spots – but then after that, honestly, we just weren’t quick enough. It was clear to me from the early laps I was having to push a lot more than the others to stay with them, then ultimately my tyres paid the price for that. On top of that, I didn’t catch the VSC, a lot of people behind me that did ended up overtaking me, so that’s a shame – we could have finished a couple of spots higher. The fact of the matter is we were just slow, and especially at a track like Monza you get exposed to that. We’ve seen a step forward this weekend with the upgrade, we weren’t quite there with the balance today, so we finished where we did, but there are positives.”
Esteban Ocon, 16th
“At the end of the day I don’t think we were quick enough, but I think we did a really good job this weekend by looking to maximise everything we had. We tried everything to get the most from the car and mitigate our issues, there was some solid work from inside the garage. My first start was mega, we were up in the points fighting with Lewis and the Audis, it was really good. On the second start, there’s a few things we need to review, but other than that – the homework we’ve done, getting good starts and all of that, it’s been pretty strong. We can take satisfaction from that.”
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal
“Obviously a very disappointing Sunday after what was a positive Friday and Saturday. Our fundamental issue was a much higher tyre degradation on both cars in comparison to our competitors, the deg-mechanism is very, very different. We’ve been quite honest about our parts inconsistency issues this weekend. Yes, the upgrade is working on both cars, it’s really much better, but in terms of, let’s say, across the car we still have inconsistency. It’s something we really need to get to the bottom of. I believe that’s why it’s leading to this different mechanism of degradation. We have to focus on that but at least the foundation of the car is good. So, if we understand those issues we can set up the car properly for the race and we can fight close to the points. Up until the last race we were nowhere near to fighting Audi – so that’s a positive from today. We stick together, work on our issues, and we move forward.”
Cadillac: A very difficult race
Sergio Perez, 18th
“It was a very difficult race for us. We were losing a lot of time on the straights, which made it extremely difficult to fight the cars around us. Our pace through the corners was much closer to the others, so it was frustrating to see such a big difference in the straights. We should have some parts coming to help us on the straights and with the next Ferrari engine. The team is pushing hard to get everything in place as soon as possible, and hopefully that will put us in a much stronger position for the upcoming races.”
Valtteri Bottas, 19th
“I think the first stint of the race was one of the most positive so far. It felt like we were in the mix with the Williams for a long time, but unfortunately on the second stint we lost a lot of time. We had a slow pit stop which put us into blue flag territory which made it difficult to get into a rhythm and ultimately, compromised our race. We had a much more trouble-free weekend that’s allowed us to focus on improving the finer details rather than solving problems. Our race pace looked slightly better than our previous GPs and we finished with both cars, so we’re making progress.”
Marcin Budkowski, Team Principal
“It was a hot and demanding race, but it was important to get both cars to the chequered flag, finishing P18 and P19. There are lessons for us to take away from today, and we know where the main weaknesses are. Congratulations to Kimi on a historic victory in front of a home crowd.
“Checo had a good fight with Fernando, which gave us some positive moments, while Valtteri had to contend with multiple blue flags toward the end of the race to bring the car home. We will take the learnings from Monza, regroup quickly and look forward to Madrid next weekend.”
Aston Martin: Our power unit is missing performance
Fernando Alonso, DNF
“My race today ended early after I picked up some damage to the car when I hit a kerb. We decided to stop to make sure there was no further damage. Until then, I was battling with the Cadillacs and trying to get the most out of the car. Now we look ahead to Spain next week and a new circuit for all of us.”
Lance Stroll, DNF
“We had to retire the car with a suspected hydraulic issue, but we were struggling in the race anyway. We know we don’t have the power we need at the moment and today was further proof of that. On paper, Madrid looks slightly better for us so the focus shifts to that now.”
Mike Krack, Chief Trackside Officer
“An early finish for both cars in Monza today. A hydraulic issue forced Lance to retire, while Fernando picked up some car damage running wide through turn seven. This circuit may not have suited our package, but we will take the data and learnings forward and hope to be more competitive in Madrid next weekend.”
Shintaro Orihara, Honda Chief Engineer
“We knew this race weekend in Monza would be challenging for us as our power unit is missing performance. We move on from this together with the team and look forward to Madrid next week which will be a different circuit characteristic to here.”
Pirelli: Congratulations to Kimi Antonelli
Dario Marrafuschi, Pirelli Motorsport Director
“We expected a race in which all three compounds would be viable strategic options and that proved to be the case. Teams had the opportunity to adopt different approaches, so much so that the starting grid presented a particularly varied picture. We saw drivers start on each of the available compounds, with different strategies unfolding throughout the race. Those who switched early to the Hard or Medium compound were able to complete most of the race distance comfortably thanks to extremely low degradation levels.
“The data collected confirmed what we had observed over the previous days. Even during the most intense battles, with numerous overtakes and a few lock-ups, no significant wear-related issues emerged. We did observe some graining, with differing behaviour from team to team, demonstrating just how much the phenomenon was influenced by individual car characteristics and stint management.
“The Virtual Safety Car inevitably limited the opportunity to gather further information on the C5 in long-run conditions, but the sets used by the drivers who completed the longest stints on the Soft compound showed low degradation in line with expectations. The rear axle undoubtedly benefited from Monza’s long straights, which helped contain tyre overheating under traction despite the high track temperatures.
“Overall, the performance of the entire range was extremely positive, allowing drivers to push throughout the race while promoting close battles and numerous overtaking opportunities. We witnessed an action-packed race characterised by varied strategies, exactly the type of scenario we aim to help create.
“Congratulations to Kimi Antonelli who, after climbing through the field from the penultimate position on the grid, managed to secure victory with an extraordinary recovery drive, completing 26 overtakes and taking advantage of a Virtual Safety Car period to fit a fresh set of Medium tyres that enabled him to catch and pass his team-mate before the chequered flag. His success brought an Italian driver back to the top step of the Monza podium for the first time in sixty years.”