Kimi Antonelli returned to winning ways in Formula 1 with a sprint race victory and pole position for the British Grand Prix on a day of struggles for his title rival George Russell.

After overtaking Lewis Hamilton to deny the British star a crowd-pleasing victory in the sprint, Antonelli doubled up with pole position for Sunday’s race.

He went fastest on his last lap by 0.175 of a second from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, with Hamilton third.

Russell was fourth in the sprint and then again in qualifying, after contact with the wall early on, and will start Sunday’s race behind the two Ferraris.

Hamilton started on pole and held off Antonelli until lap eight of 17, when the Italian swept past with the help of electrical power.

“Let’s go! Let’s go!” Antonelli told the team over the radio after taking the win.

“It was a very fun first 10 laps with Lewis, we were both pushing very hard,” Antonelli added later. “Obviously the momentum is there and we are doing a great job together with the team.”

The race was a prime example of F1 in 2026, with the strategy of charging and deploying electrical power central to the battles on track.

It allowed drivers like Lando Norris to swap places with rivals lap after lap but also meant drivers lifting off through Silverstone’s best-known fast corners to recharge power.

Hamilton was back fighting for a win again after a breakthrough victory last month at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, his first since moving to Ferrari last year.

“I was pushing as hard as I could, I gave it absolutely everything,” Hamilton said. “We’ve got a bit of work to do to try and close that gap.”

Lando Norris took third in McLaren’s white-and-green throwback livery after briefly running second at the start and then winning a thrilling back-and-forth battle with Russell and Max Verstappen for third.

Antonelli’s first win since last month’s Monaco Grand Prix stretched his Formula 1 standings lead to 43 points over Russell, who was fourth after starting fifth.

Russell had been complaining of a “strange” lack of pace in qualifying the day before, a setback after his win at the Austrian Grand Prix last week had boosted the British driver’s title chances.

Charles Leclerc was fifth for Ferrari, Verstappen sixth for Red Bull, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri seventh. Liam Lawson was eighth for Racing Bulls and got away with a warning in a post-race investigation into his battle for position with Verstappen’s teammate Isack Hadjar.

Qualifying results: 1. Antonelli (Mercedes); 2. Leclerc (Ferrari); 3. Hamilton (Ferrari); 4. Russell (Mercedes); 5. Hadjar (Red Bull); 6. Norris (McLaren); 7. Verstappen (Red Bull); 8. Piastri (McLaren); 9. Lindblad (Racing Bulls); 10. Lawson (Racing Bulls); 11. Borteleto (Audi); 12. Gasly (Alpine); 13. Hülkenberg (Audi); 14. Bearman (Haas); 15. Sainz (Williams); 16. Albon (Williams); 17. Ocon (Haas); 18. Bottas (Cadillac); 19. Colapinto (Alpine); 20. Pérez (Cadillac); 21. Stroll (Aston Martin); 22. Alonso (Aston Martin).

Lewis Hamilton won his first race since joining Ferrari two years ago while Formula 1 leader Kimi Antonelli broke down at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix on Sunday (June 14, 2026).

Hamilton increased his record win haul to 106 career victories with his first since the Belgian GP in July 2024 while he was still with Mercedes.

“They are all special in their own way, but this one is something else,” Hamilton said about the importance of a victory that ended a run of 40 races without a win.

“I watched Ferrari have all this success when I was younger and wondered what it would be like to win in this car. And now it has come true.” The seven-time world champion took advantage of fresher tires and a superior pitstop strategy by Ferrari to overtake the pole-sitting George Russell, who finished second in his Mercedes.

Antonelli had passed his Mercedes teammate when his car came to a stop on the track with just four laps to go. He had won five races in a row.

Hamilton broke Mercedes’ grip on the top spot of the podium this season, which had lasted six races.

“Thank you so much to help me achieve this dream,” Hamilton said on team radio after crossing the finish line more than 19 seconds ahead of Russell. “Thank you for everyone pushing so hard at home, thanks to my family, and to my fans who continue to remind me who I am. I couldn’t have done this without you.” He then stood on his car, pumped his fist and sprinted to leap into the arms of his thrilled engineers and pit crew members.

It is Hamilton’s seventh win at this track, a record at Montmelo but his first here since 2021.

The 41-year-old Hamilton had been on the rebound with Ferrari this season after a miserable 2025 with the Italian squad, when he didn’t finish on the podium and only celebrated a sprint race win.

He was building toward this long-awaited victory with runner-up finishes at Canada and Monaco. He said he had set the “foundation” with Ferrari before he qualified second ahead of Antonelli for the Barcelona race.

Ferrari opted for a three-stop strategy to give Hamilton fresher tires on a track that is known to be hard on rubber, especially with track temperatures at 50 Celsius (122 F). The quicker wheels had him slip ahead of Russell, who, like Antonelli, was on a two-stop plan, when a bit of luck sealed it for Hamilton.

A stoppage by Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin brought out a virtual safety car, and Ferrari called in Hamilton for his final stop while his rivals couldn’t push the pace, and he emerged in the lead with a fresh set of tires.

Seeing Hamilton slip away, Russell was left to protect his position from Antonelli. They had jousted earlier in the race, before Antonelli swept past with four laps to go.

Moments later, it all unraveled for the 19-year-old when his car stalled and his shot at 18 points vanished.

Antonelli still leads with 156 points, but Hamilton has closed the gap and now has 115 with Russell on 106.

Defending F1 champion Lando Norris was third in his McLaren, ahead of Max Verstappen for Red Bull in fourth. Oscar Piastri, who won here last year, was fifth in the other McLaren.

Italian teen star Kimi Antonelli charged to his fourth straight Formula 1 victory Sunday in a wild Canadian Grand Prix after Mercedes teammate George Russell was knocked out by an engine failure.

The title-chasing Mercedes drivers put on a show in a thrilling battle through 30 laps, trading the lead several times and coming dangerously close to making contact, until Russell ran into trouble.

That gave the 19-year-old Antonelli a clear path to victory ahead of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, who overtook Red Bull’s Max Verstappen for second with six laps to go in cold and windy conditions at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

“It was a really fun battle, to be fair, with George. We were pretty much on the limit,” Antonelli said. “It was very close, and it was a shame for him to have the failure because it would have been a very cool battle. But we’ll take it.”

Antonelli opened a 43-point lead over Russell in the season standings through five of 22 stops. After Russell won the season-opener race in Australia, Antonelli won in China, Japan and Miami.

Hamilton had his best result since joining Ferrari last year, while Verstappen reached the podium for the first time this season.

“It’s been pretty tough for the past year and a bit, so to finally find our sweet spot and have a good weekend, it’s an amazing feeling to be back up here, especially with these guys being so quick,” the 41-year-old Hamilton said. “And actually got to have a race with Max, which is great.”

After the engine failure, Russell threw his headrest across the track and slammed his fists into the front of the car before leaving the circuit, whipping his gloves to the ground in rage.

The Englishman’s exit marked a nightmare end to an otherwise stellar weekend for last year’s winner in Montreal, who took the sprint race Saturday from the pole and also started first Sunday.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished fourth, followed by Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar, Alpine’s Franco Colapinto and Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson.

McLaren started with both drivers in the second row, but Landon Norris was forced to retire from a gearbox issue on Lap 40. Teammate Oscar Piastri placed 11th after a team decision to start on intermediate tyres backfired.

Norris flew from third to first off an exciting start on a drying track, only to switch tyres three laps in. That ceded the lead to Antonelli, who’d also moved past Russell following the pole-sitter’s poor start.

Russell regained the lead on the seventh lap with a clean overtake as Antonelli nearly hit his teammate from behind after his wheels locked up, rolling off the track. The fighting continued into Lap 12 as Antonelli advanced to first, only for Russell to re-take his position before fending off multiple attempts on Lap 17.

Antonelli successfully pulled it off on the 22nd lap, but Russell again charged back into the lead when Antonelli veered off course two laps later. The exchanges persisted until Russell’s engine blew out.

The Mercedes drivers had gone head-to-head all weekend in the fastest cars on the grid, with Russell edging Antonelli by 0.068 seconds in both the sprint and race qualifying sessions.

Tensions reached a tipping point early in the sprint race on Saturday when they made contact on Antonelli’s overtake attempt, as Russell kept his line and forced Antonelli into the grass. Antonelli lost his cool over the team radio, calling the move “very naughty” before demanding a penalty.

Italian ​teenage prodigy Kimi Antonelli won the Miami Grand Prix for Mercedes on Sunday and wrote his ‌name in the Formula One record books with his third victory in ​a row from pole position.

The youngest driver ever to lead the championship, ⁠at 19 years old, also became the first to take his first three career wins from the top slot on the grid and also the first in five editions of the race to win ‌in Miami from the front row.

“This is just the beginning, the road is still long,” he said after beating McLaren’s world champion Lando Norris by ‌3.2 seconds at the Hard Rock Stadium to stretch his lead to 20 points ‌after ⁠four rounds — all won by Mercedes.

“We are working super hard and the ⁠team is doing an incredible job.”

‘How did we not win this?’

Norris, winner of the Saturday sprint, had a three-second lead at one point but lost out after the pitstops when Antonelli came in first for a change ​of tyres and then got ahead of ‌the Briton who pitted one lap later.

“How did we not win this? We should have won guys,” Norris said over the team radio after the chequered flag.

“We just got undercut — no excuses other than that. We got undercut, we should have boxed (pitted) ‌first,” he explained later.

“Hats off to Merc and Kimi, they drove a good ​race. I’m gutted to miss out on a win here in Miami, I think it was possible today. But not the pace to get past ⁠him in the end, so we take it on the chin.”

Australian Oscar Piastri, last year’s winner, completed the podium for McLaren after a lively finish to the race with Antonelli’s teammate ‌and closest rival George Russell taking fourth.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen finished fifth after starting on the front row and spinning full circle on the opening lap without collecting anyone or being hit by other cars and dropping to 10th.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was sixth, passed by Russell and Verstappen in the final corners as he wrestled with a damaged car after leading at the start and then hitting the barrier at the end, while teammate Lewis ‌Hamilton finished seventh.

Leclerc faced a post-race investigation for multiple alleged breaches of track limits on the final ​lap while Verstappen also faced a stewards’ enquiry for crossing the white line at the pitlane exit.

Argentine Franco Colapinto took eighth place for Alpine with ⁠Williams scoring a double points finish with Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon ninth and 10th.

Antonelli now ⁠has 100 points to Russell’s 80 and Leclerc’s 63, with Norris on 51.

The safety car was deployed on lap six after two accidents, Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar ‌skidding into the wall and then Alpine’s Pierre Gasly sent cartwheeling off after contact with the Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson.

The race was brought forward by three hours ​after forecasts predicted lightning and thunderstorms and was completed without any weather interruption. (Reporting by Alan Baldwin Editing by Peter Graff and Toby Davis)

Italian teenager Kimi Antonelli, the youngest championship leader in F1 history, will seek to complete a hat-trick of early season victories this weekend as Formula One returns after a month’s enforced absence due to the West Asian war.

The 19-year-old Mercedes driver, triumphant in China and Japan, leads team-mate George Russell, who won the season-opening Australian race, by nine points ahead of what is effectively the start of another season, complete with revised rules and widespread car upgrades, at the Miami Grand Prix.

“After a month without any racing, we are ready to get back on track,” said Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff. “We’ve used this break to analyse the opening races, address our weaknesses and rase our level.

“We’ve started the season well, but that counts for very little if you stand still. We know our competitors will have used this time to improve and build a deeper understanding of their cars so we expect the field to be closer in Miami.

“That’s the reality of F1 – it’s a challenge we must rise to.”

Antonelli’s early triumphs made him the first Italian driver since Alberto Ascari in 1953 to win two consecutive races. Ascari completed his treble that season.

Wolff also addressed the tweaks to the regulations to be introduced in Miami, aimed at making the cars and the spectacle more natural with reduced battery re-charging in qualifying and increased super-clipping power to reduce dangerous speed differentials.

He said the revised rules would “respect the DNA of our sport” and deliver an improved spectacle without any significant reduction to Mercedes’ early-season performance advantage.

For Mercedes, this Sunday’s race is an opportunity for a first win in Florida since the event was launched five years ago. It has been won twice by four-time champion Max Verstappen for Red Bull and twice by McLaren with a win apiece for world champion Lando Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri.

‘Completely new car’

They will harbour hopes of claiming points too with success in Saturday’s (May 2, 2026) sprint race, won last year by Norris, but Ferrari are widely expected to be strong contenders too as they arrive in Miami, like McLaren, who are bringing an almost “completely new car”, with a heavily revised package.

“It was one of our best tracks for pure pace, compared to others, last year,” said Norris. “It’s a different track and it may still suit us a little more than others.”

After winning in 2022 and 2023, Verstappen will be aiming to stop Mercedes’ winning run and revive Red Bull’s challenge this year after a discouraging start. He is ninth, on 12 points, 60 adrift of Antonelli, with team-mate Isack Hadjar 12th on four.

Ferrari’s duo of Charles Leclerc and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton are third and fourth respectively on 49 and 41 points with many paddock observers suggesting they are poised to fight for a first win since Carlos Sainz’s success in Mexico in October 2024.

Leclerc’s eighth and last win came at Austin, Texas, shortly before Sainz’s triumph while Hamilton is chasing his 106th win and first since the 2024 Belgian race before he joined Ferrari. After a desultory first year, the Briton said he is relishing the challenge of a new formula that has seen him rediscover his racing mojo.

“We’re all re-charged after the break,” said Russell, expressing the feelings of most drivers. “I’m hoping we can continue where we left off.”

It will mark newcomers Cadillac’s first racing appearance on home soil in the United States when Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas venture out at the Hard Rock Stadium in a new American livery.

Kimi Antonelli said Monday (March 16, 2026) that he is eyeing further Formula One success after the teenage Italian announced himself on the world stage with victory in the Chinese Grand Prix.

The 19-year-old won his maiden GP from pole position on Sunday and was greeted by media and enthusiastic fans as he touched down in his native Bologna.

“I’m so happy for the win and to have brought the Italian flag back onto the highest step of the podium,” Antonelli told reporters.

“It’s a starting point and I hope I can keep going because we’re on the right track. It won’t be easy.”

Antonelli, who took over Lewis Hamilton’s old seat at Mercedes at the start of the 2025 season, is the first Italian to win an F1 GP since Giancarlo Fisichella 20 years ago.

He finished in front of Mercedes teammate George Russell and Ferrari’s Hamilton after becoming the youngest pole sitter in F1 history.

And Antonelli even hinted that he was aiming to be become the first Italian to win the drivers’ championship since Alberto Ascari in 1953.

“I’ve removed a bit of weight from my shoulders, I’m more relaxed. It’s the kind of result which gives you strength and more awareness of what you can do,” he said.

“There’s another, bigger step, which is the most difficult. I’m sure that if I do everything well we can get there.”

Antonelli’s win was huge news in Italy and led to tennis superstar Jannik Sinner dedicating his Indian Wells triumph to F1’s rising star.

“I was really surprised by Sinner’s homage, I sent him a message because I really appreciated it, it was really nice of him,” he said.

Antonelli sits four points behind Russell in the world championship standings with the Japanese GP coming up on March 29.

Kimi Antonelli stepped up on Saturday (March 14, 2026) when his Mercedes teammate George Russell hit trouble in qualifying to become the youngest-ever driver on pole position for a Formula 1 Grand Prix.

After holding off a challenge from Ferrari to win the sprint race earlier in the day, Russell seemed near-unbeatable. Then he stopped on track in qualifying and limped back to the pits with technical problems.

Russell’s team got the car going again with seconds to spare for him to set a time. It was only good enough for second on the grid, 0.222 of a second off Antonelli, who kept up Mercedes’ run of qualifying dominance after F1’s sweeping changes to the cars for 2026.

The Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc will start third and fourth. Their fast starts could threaten Mercedes off the line, as they did last week in Australia and in Saturday’s sprint race.

The 19-year-old Antonelli becomes the youngest driver to take pole position for a full Grand Prix race, though he was also on pole aged 18 for a sprint race last year in Miami.

“It’s just the beginning, so obviously there’s a lot more to come,” Antonelli said. “Really looking forward to tomorrow. Car is feeling really good, car is strong, so a lot to play for tomorrow. But just super happy with today.” Russell said a damaged front wing and gear-change issues made for a “crazy” qualifying session. “As soon as I went out on the track, I could tell something wasn’t right,” he said. He then had to set a last-chance time with a depleted battery and cold tires.

Russell holds off Ferraris in sprint

Russell won the first race of the season in Australia last weekend, and he followed up taking the 19-lap sprint in China.

As last week in Australia, the Ferraris were fast off the line and Russell and Lewis Hamilton swapped the lead several times on the first few laps. But Russell began to pull away after the early laps with Hamilton fading as the constant battles took a toll on his tires. Charles Leclerc was second with his teammate Hamilton third.

“Lewis did an amazing job in the in the early laps,” Russell said. “He caught me off guard — 20 years of experience. So I’ve still got a bit to learn.” “It was pretty fun in the end,” Russell added. “A lot of strategy in play and overtakes. It’s not easy. I hope it was fun race to watch. Usually the sprint races are pretty boring.” Hamilton received loud applause from the Shanghai crowd when he began his on-track interview by saying “Ni hao” — hello in Chinese.

“That speed (of Mercedes) on the straight is just a little bit too much at the moment,” said Hamilton, who won last year’s sprint in China for his only victory since joining Ferrari. “I think I put up a good fight.” Hamilton and Leclerc couldn’t renew their challenge late in the race after a safety car period for Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg stopping on track.

Lando Norris was fourth for McLaren and Antonelli fifth after serving a penalty for an early collision with Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar.

Adapting to F1’s changes

Formula 1 has made massive engine and chassis changes for this season — the most radical in over a decade — that feature a 50-50 split between internal combustion and electric power.

Russell is one of the new era’s biggest cheerleaders and said Saturday’s sprint battle felt “like go-kart racing in the past … I don’t ever remember Formula 1 being like that, where you can have three or four cars all fighting for the same position truly on track.” Drivers have struggled to handle the trade-off between using power and conserving it, and some have struggled with extra power coming in unexpectedly.

Four-time world champion Max Verstappen is no fan of the changes and finished ninth in the sprint race.

“Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong,” Verstappen said. “We just need to get our stuff together.”