Verstappen Wins and Hamilton Fumes as Antonelli Is Crowned Youngest World Champion in Mexico

In what felt like a real-life fairy tale, Kimi Antonelli stood on the Mexico City Grand Prix podium, having secured his first world title after a coming-of-age season that has already seen him declared one of the future greats. There are still at most four races to go this year, and given that neither of his closest title challengers going into the weekend won, Kimi wouldn’t even have needed to score any points to win it all, underlining just how impressive his second season has been.

Incredibly, this only tells half the story of this weekend, which has seen drama across the length and breadth of the paddock, right from Friday practice, through to Sunday, where there would have been some difficult post-race debriefs, not least at Ferrari. The Scuderia was looking at the possibility of a one-two after the first couple of corners, before both drivers went off track, letting Verstappen in to claim the spoils and win the Race. Antonelli’s team-mate George Russell, meanwhile, “distraught” after an abysmal race which saw him slip to fourth in the standings, had to leave the circuit.

Hamilton, we have a problem. Could it be his team-mate?

The Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez has for a long time had an issue with drivers leaving the track and gaining an advantage. Unlike other tracks where barriers or gravel traps force drivers to be much more risk-averse, the grass run-offs that exist here almost invite drivers to push the limits of what they can get away with when it comes to making opportunistic moves off-track. This seems to be what Charles Leclerc was trying to do on Polesitter Lewis Hamilton, as he made a lunge round the outside at turn four, when the two drivers were running one and two in the Grand Prix.

Despite the FIA saying they would be tougher on drivers doing this, they were arguably not harsh enough on Leclerc, giving him a five-second time penalty which he served in his pit stop after he had already built a five-second gap to the car behind whilst leading. Max Verstappen was able to overtake Charles in the pits as he served his penalty. He stayed in the lead after the race was later restarted, with Hamilton in second unable to make a winning move and Charles slipping down to fourth.

Lewis declared over the radio, “We’ve got big problems”, and didn’t hold back in the criticism of his team-mate after the race, suggesting that his mentality was too “do or die” and he cost the team valuable points. All racing drivers are hardwired to beat whoever is in front of them, and there is no guarantee that they would have stayed one and two; this was undoubtedly Ferrari’s race to lose, and some clearer rules of engagement from the team could have prevented this.

Where is poor George?

As the sun went down in Mexico City, all the Mercedes team gathered for photos rightfully celebrating Kimi’s first World Drivers’ Championship and the team’s first since 2020, but someone was missing. Former Mercedes champion Nico Rosberg on Sky Sports immediately noticed the absence of Antonelli’s team-mate George Russell, but not only was he not appearing in the photos, but he was also no longer at the circuit.

Team Boss Toto Wolff later revealed that after getting out of the car and congratulating his team-mate in a “great show of sportsmanship,” George Russell skipped his media duties, with Mercedes happy to pay the customary five-thousand-euro fine that was sent his way as a result. The race itself was fairly representative of George’s whole season this year – showing huge promise, but going disastrously wrong as a result of things not entirely in his control.

After having started on the front row, a deployment issue in the run down to turn one saw him getting swallowed up by Max, Charles and Kimi, and when Isack Hadjar got ahead, Russell didn’t back out of a potential move soon enough, turning him around and getting himself a ten-second time penalty. George has had a lot of time to come to terms with the fact that his younger team-mate has got the measure of him currently, but with the title now decided, it might have all just come over him.

Chaos in the midfield causes two safety cars and a red flag

The Mexico City Grand Prix Circuit is notoriously difficult to overtake on due to the altitude, and the race this time around was no different, but despite this, there were still plenty of incidents that kept us on the edge of our seats. Apart from those we have already discussed at the sharp end, Lance Stroll stopping early due to doors brought out the virtual safety car, but it was rather too early at this stage for anyone to make a cheap pit stop.

Valtteri Bottas suffered a scary suspension failure on his Cadillac, sending him careering into the barrier in the stadium section, and this caused a brief safety car, which Hamilton, Hirakawa, Perez, Piastri and Russell took advantage of by pitting. Antonelli, however, had already stopped, and therefore missed out on the opportunity to stay in the lead after having extended his soft tyre stint. The red flag was eventually thrown.

Arvid Lindblad would later suffer his first official DNF for the Racing Bulls team after a coming-together with Oscar Piastri saw the rear of Lindblad’s car going airborne with the wall at turn five waiting for him, and significant damage to Piastri’s McLaren. The result of this was another safety car and a ten-second penalty for Piastri, dropping him down to thirteenth place and out of the points.

The top three drivers take the top three in the standings

While it was painful watching George Russell, the driver who seemed destined to win his first world championship, lose his runner-up spot in the standings, it somewhat felt appropriate that F1’s past, present and its future, represented by Lewis, Max and Kimi respectively, were on the podium on Sunday. All three drivers, now with at least one world title each, have arguably been the most consistent drivers in 2026, as reflected in top three spots in the standings.

Though somewhat overshadowed by Kimi’s maiden title and the drama surrounding the Ferrari drivers, Max Verstappen’s victory further underlines his incredible record in Mexico, as, with six victories, it has become his winningest circuit. Lewis Hamilton has also won a round here, albeit only once, and though external factors robbed him of victory this time around, he has once again proven that age is just a number, with his lightning pace all weekend.

But for Kimi Antonelli, whose struggles last year had some people questioning if he was even F1 driver material, being able to celebrate his world championship victory on the podium in front of his team and his family felt truly apt. As Lewis and Max, the two drivers who have, between them, won all but one of the previous World Drivers’ Championships this decade, lifted him on their shoulders, it was truly one of those historic changing-of-the-guard moments we never truly appreciate until many years later…