Sensational Kimi Antonelli fought his way from the back of the grid to become the first home winner of the Italian Grand Prix since Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966.
The title-race leader started the race at Monza in 19th place due to engine penalties but would produce an extraordinary performance, fighting his way through the opposition to finish ahead of Mercedes teammate George Russell in second, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen third.
For the second race running there had been a big crash near the beginning. At the Dutch GP last time out, it had been Verstappen who saw his hopes of winning at Zandvoort ended early on.
This time it was Charles Leclerc who crashed out heavily at the end of Lap 2 at Parabolica, having already nearly taken out Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton with an aggressive move.
Russell took the lead after the restart but would eventually finish 3.857 seconds behind Antonelli, 20, after being hunted down by a teammate on fresher tyres late in the race.
“It feels like a dream,” said a disbelieving Antonelli on the team radio after claiming a victory that increased this lead over Russell in the drivers' championship to 66 points
“I did not expect it. Unbelievable, unbelievable. I am so happy, I could not have imagined to be here today but we managed to pull it off and I am really, really happy,” said Antonelli.
“It was quite scary, there in the moment [getting on to the gravel] because the tarmac was breaking up but I still thought I could do the corner but once I went over a bit of gravel as well I went straight. I was like maybe I lost my chance but luckily we had the pace and I could bring it home.
“After the second restart, I was up there and I knew I could have had a shot for the win so definitely I believed in it, especially when I was behind George but it was difficult to breakaway with it all being so strong. At the end we pitted he stayed out and he struggled with his tyres at the end, with fresher tyres we could increase the pace and get the winner.”
Russell had been hoping to claw some points back from his teammate’s 59-point lead but now finds himself further behind going into next weekend's Spanish GP in Madrid.
“Huge congrats to Kimi, incredible result for him. When I looked at the leaderboard at the beginning he was P4, P5, so I knew he was going to be in the mix,” said the Briton.
“It was looking like a pretty strong race from us and then I was just struggling on the tyres towards the end … It's been more positive than it was pre-summer break and that's what I needed to try to achieve but of course I would have loved to have been P1.”
Antonelli's efforts were hailed as “an amazing drive” by Mercedes boss Toto Wolff. “Unbelievable, he was so controlled all race,” he said. "[He] kept his head down, took no risk at the beginning with the restart and then one by one, one by one [picked off the drivers].
“It was after all, the two-stop was the best but we didn't think it was the case. So that was good for him actually. But today there was nothing that would have stopped him. I am really happy.
“Obviously George fought. I'm really happy with the one-two. Yeah it is great. "[George] was on the hard and we needed to go on a one stop. There was no chance.”
McLaren's reigning champion Lando Norris – who was looking for a third successive victory after winning in Hungary and the Netherlands – could only finish fourth with teammate Oscar Piastri fifth. Ferrari's Hamilton was sixth, after starting fourth and clashing with Leclerc on the opening lap.
Pierre Gasly, the initial pole sitter for Renault-owned Alpine, was seventh with Racing Bulls' rookie Arvid Lindblad eighth and Alpine's Franco Colapinto ninth. Racing Bulls' stand-in Yuki Tsunoda completed the scoring positions in 10th.
Leclerc, meanwhile, was left devastated after his crash in Ferrari's home race. On his early tussle with Hamilton, the Monegasque said: “With Lewis, it was way too close into Turn 1. And unfortunately in Turn 2, I don't know whether we had contact.
“I was quite a lot on the inside kerb and tried to make the corner, which I didn't do it tight enough. And then I only saw in the mirrors what happened, which is never what you want between two cars of the same team.”
