Kimi Antonelli becomes Formula One’s youngest world champion in Mexico City
Italian wonderkid wins drivers' championship at 20 years and 68 days, finishing third at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Kimi Antonelli has become Formula One’s youngest world champion at 20 years and 68 days old with his third-place finish for Mercedes at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
The first Italian champion since 1953 sobbed with joy over the team radio as he took the chequered flag at the high-altitude Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Sunday.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the red-flagged, restarted race for his second win of the season, but Antonelli’s overall lead reached an unassailable 119 points after finishing third.
Leclerc finished fourth, McLaren’s outgoing champion Lando Norris fifth, and Antonelli’s teammate George Russell only sixth in a race he had to win to have any chance of staying in contention.