Kimi Antonelli smashes three records in winning Monaco GP as George Russell laments ‘bad luck’

The Mercedes driver claimed victory around the streets of Monte Carlo by 6.2 seconds ahead of Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton. Antonelli led every lap and, having secured pole position and the race's fastest lap, became the youngest driver in F1 history to complete a Grand Slam.

But that wasn't the only new record that the Italian holds.

He is also the youngest winner of the Monaco Grand Prix at 19 years and nine months old, with Hamilton having been 23 years and four months old when he took the chequered flag in the rain-affected 2008 race. And Antonelli is now the youngest F1 driver to win five Grands Prix in a row.

Speaking over team radio after crossing the line, the Italian told race engineer Pete Bonnington: "Thank you so much. The car was a beast today.

"My goodness, thank you so much. It's been an incredible race. It was one of those days we had incredible pace. It was all so natural. The car was feeling incredible and giving me the confidence to push. It was a very enjoyable day."

Kimi jumps into the Monaco harbour, and the celebrations have only just begun... pic.twitter.com/NZwsL9CCH1

— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) June 7, 2026

Antonelli's win would have been made even sweeter by the fact that he had to navigate two safety car periods and a red flag. The race was suspended on lap 69 after parts of the resurfaced track heading into the final corner had begun to break up — with both Charles Leclerc and Lance Stroll understeering into the barrier.

That prompted a second standing start for Antonelli up against the faster-starting Ferrari of Hamilton on the front row, but the Italian made it to turn 1 without any drama and pulled clear.

For Hamilton, it was his second consecutive second-placed finish, and also moves him up to second in the Drivers' Championship behind Antonelli — albeit with a 66-point deficit to the Mercedes driver. His team-mate Leclerc was poised to finish third before crashing out on the second safety car restart — something he later blamed on Ferrari's brakes, prompting a less-than-impressed statement from the team's brake suppliers.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen, meanwhile, qualified second but lost engine power almost immediately after his car got off the line, having reported power unit issues during the formation lap. The four-time world champion pulled into the pits at the end of lap 1 to retire, and jokingly told reporters that he would be making the 500-metre journey back to his home in Monte Carlo rather than watch the rest of the Grand Prix.

There were narratives further down the field, with Alpine's Pierre Gasly finishing in third place on the track to secure what would have been the French team's first podium of the season. But Gasly had incurred two five-second penalties for speeding in the pit lane — one of seven drivers to fall foul of the Monaco sensors — and dropped down to seventh. That promoted fellow Frenchman Isack Hadjar up to third place, with the Red Bull driver securing his first F1 podium.

Hadjar was investigated by the stewards over a potential red flag infringement, but it was decided that his Red Bull mechanics had not worked on his car, which would have been against the FIA’s Sporting Regulations, during the race stoppage. The same could not be said for Cadillac's Sergio Perez, who received a 10-second penalty for being in the wrong position at the red flag restart.

The Mexican had provisionally earned Cadillac's first-ever point in Formula 1, but his penalty promoted Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso up to 10th, who in turn secured his team's first points of the season.

And while Antonelli was standing on top of the podium, his teammate George Russell had to reflect on finishing outside the points for a second consecutive race. The Englishman spent the first part of the race battling Red Bull's Hadjar for fourth place, but also received a five-second time penalty for pit lane speeding — and then a drive-through penalty for not serving it correctly at his next stop. Russell had to take the penalty in the three laps after the restart, dropping him out of the points. He eventually finished 12th.

After retiring from the Canadian Grand Prix, Russell still only has one win to his name this season and is 68 points behind Antonelli in the standings. After lamenting more ‘bad luck’ in his post-race media conference, Russell told Sky Sports F1: “I don’t really know what to say. It’s two races in a row — could have won the race last week, could have maybe been P3 or P4 today. It’s 40 points down the drain for things outside of our control.”

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Words by Ryan Smart