Kimi Antonelli arrived at Monza with a 59 point championship advantage. He leaves Italy 66 points clear of George Russell after producing one of the drives of the season. With ten Grands Prix remaining, the championship is not mathematically settled, but the Italian has transformed a potentially damaging weekend into another major step towards the Formula One World Championship.
By Open Chronicle Formula One Magazine
The 2026 Formula One World Championship left Monza with an increasingly clear central question.
Not whether Kimi Antonelli is capable of becoming World Champion.
But what his rivals can realistically do to stop him.
Round 13 could have been one of the most dangerous weekends of Antonelli’s campaign. A power unit penalty sent the Mercedes driver to 19th on the grid while his closest championship rival, George Russell, started from the front row.
Instead of losing ground, Antonelli won.
He climbed through the field, reached the leaders, passed Max Verstappen, fought Russell directly and ultimately defeated his teammate to win the Italian Grand Prix.
Formula One’s official championship standings now show Antonelli on 267 points, Russell on 201, Lewis Hamilton on 191, Lando Norris on 171, Charles Leclerc on 155 and Verstappen on 127.
The championship lead is now 66 points.
And ten Grands Prix are remaining.
Championship Standings After Round 13
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Points | Gap to Antonelli |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 267 | Leader |
| 2 | George Russell | Mercedes | 201 | 66 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 191 | 76 |
| 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 171 | 96 |
| 5 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 155 | 112 |
| 6 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing | 127 | 140 |
| 7 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 116 | 151 |
| 8 | Isack Hadjar | Red Bull Racing | 71 | 196 |
| 9 | Liam Lawson | Red Bull Racing | 51 | 216 |
| 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 41 | 226 |
Official standings after the Italian Grand Prix.
Monza Was Supposed to Cost Antonelli Points
This is what makes the Italian Grand Prix particularly significant from a championship perspective.
Antonelli entered the weekend with 242 points, 59 ahead of Russell and Hamilton, who were tied on 183. Norris was fourth on 159.
Then came the engine penalty.
Antonelli qualified seventh but was sent back to 19th on the official grid after power unit changes. Formula One had already confirmed during Friday practice that he was facing a start from the rear following the engine change.
Russell, meanwhile, started second.
For a championship leader, this was precisely the kind of Sunday on which damage limitation would ordinarily have represented success.
A fifth place would have been valuable.
A podium would have been exceptional.
Antonelli won.
Formula One’s race report confirms the scale of the recovery: P19 to P1, with Antonelli passing Russell in the closing stages after a Virtual Safety Car had helped create different strategic paths for the Mercedes drivers.
The consequence was enormous.
Instead of Russell making a substantial reduction to the championship deficit, Antonelli actually increased his advantage from 59 to 66 points.
That seven point swing may prove more important than the victory itself.
Antonelli Is Winning in Different Ways
There is another reason Monza matters.
Championship campaigns reveal themselves through different types of victories.
Antonelli has already demonstrated outright speed during 2026. His season record now includes victories in China, Japan, Miami, Canada, Monaco, Belgium and Italy. Formula One’s official results give him seven Grand Prix victories through the opening 13 rounds.
But Monza was different.
This was not a weekend built around controlling a race from the front.
Antonelli had to recover.
His starting position removed the luxury normally available to a championship leader. He had traffic ahead, strategic uncertainty, a red flag and some of the fastest cars in Formula One between himself and the lead.
He still found a route to victory.
That matters because championships are rarely won exclusively on perfect weekends.
They are often won by converting bad weekends into good ones.
At Monza, Antonelli converted what could have been one of his worst Sundays into arguably his most important victory.
Russell Is Now the Clear Primary Challenger
George Russell nevertheless strengthened his own position in the championship.
His second place moved him from 183 to 201 points, breaking the tie with Hamilton and establishing him as Antonelli’s nearest challenger.
The problem is that he had an opportunity to achieve much more.
Russell started second.
Antonelli started 19th.
Russell led significant portions of the Grand Prix.
Yet Antonelli eventually caught and passed him.
From a championship perspective, that is difficult to ignore.
Russell remains firmly in contention because ten rounds still represent a substantial amount of available points. But the nature of his task is changing.
Finishing immediately behind Antonelli is no longer enough.
Russell now needs weekends in which he beats his teammate, preferably with other cars between them.
A Mercedes one two with Antonelli first is excellent for the constructor.
For Russell’s championship ambitions, it is precisely the opposite.
Hamilton Takes Another Hit
Lewis Hamilton entered Monza level with Russell on 183 points.
He leaves Italy third with 191, ten behind Russell and 76 behind Antonelli.
Sixth place limited the damage, but Ferrari’s home Grand Prix was a significant missed opportunity.
Hamilton had started fourth after grid penalties reshuffled the order. Charles Leclerc started alongside him in third.
Ferrari therefore began its home race with both cars immediately behind the front row.
It finished with Hamilton sixth and Leclerc retired after his heavy accident.
Hamilton subsequently described Ferrari’s Italian Grand Prix outcome as particularly difficult after the team failed to challenge for victory at home.
For Hamilton’s championship prospects, the arithmetic is becoming uncomfortable.
A 76 point deficit with ten races remaining can still be overturned.
But it requires more than consistent podium finishes.
Hamilton needs victories, and he needs Antonelli to start surrendering substantial points.
Neither happened at Monza.
Norris Is Still Moving Forward
Lando Norris is in a different position.
His victory in Hungary was followed by another win at Zandvoort, where he beat Antonelli and Russell.
Monza did not deliver a third consecutive victory, but Norris recovered fourth place from Oscar Piastri on the final lap.
That takes him to 171 points.
His deficit to Antonelli is now 96.
That is large, but Norris has demonstrated something important over the last three rounds: McLaren has become capable of fighting at the front consistently.
The championship problem is that Antonelli has continued scoring heavily at the same time.
Across Hungary, the Netherlands and Italy, Antonelli finished third, second and first.
Norris therefore needs more than McLaren performance.
He needs Mercedes, and particularly Antonelli, to stumble.
Leclerc’s Monza Retirement Is Costly
Charles Leclerc’s championship position suffered the largest setback among the leading contenders.
He arrived at Monza on 155 points.
He leaves with exactly the same total.
His accident removed him from a race in which Ferrari had started with both cars near the front, and he has consequently fallen 112 points behind Antonelli.
That does not mathematically eliminate Leclerc.
But Championship Watch now has to distinguish between mathematical possibility and realistic momentum.
At this stage, Leclerc requires an extraordinary reversal.
Ferrari needs to start winning races while Antonelli must simultaneously endure several low scoring weekends.
Verstappen Is Becoming a Championship Outsider
Max Verstappen’s Monza podium was a strong result.
His championship position is much more difficult.
The Red Bull driver now has 127 points, exactly 140 fewer than Antonelli.
At this point, Verstappen’s role in the title battle may increasingly become that of a disruptor.
If Red Bull can win races, Verstappen can take points away from Antonelli.
But he can also take points from Russell, Hamilton and Norris.
That could indirectly strengthen Antonelli’s position.
For Mercedes’ rivals, therefore, Red Bull competitiveness is a double edged variable.
Mercedes Holds the Most Powerful Position
There is also an unusual dynamic at the centre of the championship.
The two leading drivers are teammates.
Antonelli: 267
Russell: 201
Mercedes therefore controls both sides of the principal title fight.
That gives the team extraordinary strength, but it could eventually create difficult decisions.
At Monza, Antonelli and Russell fought directly for victory. The official race report describes Russell leading on older hard tyres while Antonelli, having stopped during the Virtual Safety Car, returned on fresher mediums and ultimately passed him.
As long as both drivers remain championship contenders, Mercedes has little reason to prevent them racing.
But if Antonelli’s advantage continues growing, the strategic calculation may change.
There could eventually come a point at which protecting one championship campaign becomes more valuable than maintaining complete competitive neutrality.
Monza has brought that possibility closer.
The Numbers Behind Antonelli’s Campaign
After 13 Grands Prix, Antonelli’s season is becoming formidable.
267 points
7 Grand Prix victories
66 point championship lead
10 Grands Prix remaining
And perhaps most significantly, he has finished on the podium in each of the last three races:
Hungary, third.
Netherlands, second.
Italy, first.
That sequence tells its own story.
While Norris has emerged as a major late summer threat and Russell remains consistently competitive, Antonelli has continued accumulating points.
He does not need to win every remaining race.
His rivals increasingly do.
The Championship Has Entered a New Phase
Until Monza, the 2026 championship could still be viewed as Antonelli leading a group of challengers.
After Monza, the structure is becoming more defined.
Russell is the closest challenger at 66 points.
Hamilton is 76 behind.
Norris is 96 behind.
Leclerc is 112 behind.
Verstappen is 140 behind.
Every race from this point increases the importance of mathematical attrition.
When the leader already possesses a significant advantage, the calendar itself becomes an ally.
There are fewer opportunities remaining to recover lost points.
Next Stop: Spain
There is very little time for the championship picture to settle.
Round 14 takes Formula One directly to Spain from 11 to 13 September, before Azerbaijan, the relocated Bahrain Grand Prix at Sepang, Singapore and the final run of flyaway races.
For Russell, Hamilton and Norris, Spain therefore carries immediate importance.
They need to stop Antonelli’s momentum before the championship enters its final third.
For Antonelli, the equation is different.
He does not need desperation.
He needs consistency.
That may be the most dangerous advantage of all.
Championship Watch Verdict
Monza did not decide the 2026 Formula One World Championship.
But it changed its character.
A weekend that presented Antonelli’s rivals with a rare opportunity instead became another demonstration of why the Italian leads the championship.
He started 19th.
His nearest rival started second.
Antonelli still won.
Russell still finished behind him.
And a 59 point championship lead became 66.
Ten Grands Prix remain, so Formula One has far too much racing left to declare the title settled.
But after Monza, the burden has shifted decisively.
Kimi Antonelli no longer needs to chase the championship.
The championship is chasing Kimi Antonelli.