Monza delivered a little bit of everything this weekend: an incredible comeback, a long-awaited home victory, a Mercedes battle for the win and, on the other side of the paddock, a painful Ferrari afternoon in front of the Tifosi.
But while Kimi Antonelli celebrated his sensational victory by eating pasta from his trophy and Mercedes enjoyed a dream 1-2 finish, there were plenty of stories unfolding behind them.
Here are some of the biggest talking points from an extraordinary Italian Grand Prix.
Antonelli Makes History at Home
There are comeback drives, and then there are drives like this.
Starting 19th on the grid after taking a series of grid penalties for engine component changes, Kimi Antonelli needed just 18 laps to fight his way to the front of the field.
The Italian eventually came out on top in another on-track battle with Mercedes team mate George Russell to claim his seventh victory of the season — and of his career.
But this win was about much more than another addition to his championship tally.
The 20-year-old became the most successful Italian driver since Alberto Ascari, whose final championship victory came in 1953. He also became the first Italian to win his home Grand Prix since Ludovico Scarfiotti did it 60 years ago.
And if that wasn’t impressive enough, Antonelli’s recovery from 19th to first was the second-lowest winning grid position in Formula 1 history. Only John Watson, who won from 22nd at Long Beach in 1983, has come back from further down the grid.
The victory also extended Antonelli’s championship lead over Russell to 66 points, with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton a further 10 points behind in third.
With nine Grands Prix still to go, the young Italian is beginning to look increasingly difficult to stop.
Mercedes Finally Get Their 1-2
Considering the pace Mercedes have shown throughout the season, it is somewhat surprising that Monza marked their first 1-2 finish since the second race of the season in China.
They certainly had to work for it. Antonelli and Russell battled hard but fairly for the lead, with the Italian eventually getting the better of his team mate.
For Russell, however, the result will sting.
On paper, the Briton had plenty to celebrate. He delivered his best result at Monza and strengthened his position in second in the Drivers’ Championship. His overall performance throughout the weekend also suggested that he was getting closer to his best form.
But being beaten by a team mate who started 17 places behind him makes the result considerably harder to celebrate.
With Antonelli starting from the back because of his engine penalties, this was a golden opportunity for Russell to close the championship gap.
Instead, he leaves Italy even further behind.
And Russell may have another difficult weekend coming soon. Mercedes are expected to take engine penalties with him at some point in the near future, with Baku currently looking like the most likely destination.
For Mercedes, however, the bigger picture is excellent. Their Monza result moved them 122 points clear of Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship, with 402 points still available across the remaining nine events.
Verstappen Finds a Way Again
Red Bull knows they still have plenty of work to do with their 2026 challenger, but Max Verstappen once again showed why he remains one of the most dangerous drivers on the grid.
The Dutchman wasn’t particularly happy with the balance of the car throughout the weekend and appeared to encounter deployment issues that hampered his progress.
None of that stopped him from producing another spectacular drive.
Verstappen fought his way onto the podium with a series of impressive overtakes, dragging the RB22 to a result that looked far from guaranteed at the beginning of the weekend.
It was his first Monza podium that wasn’t a victory, having previously won at the circuit in 2022, 2023 and 2025. It was also his fifth podium of the season.
Milton Keynes may not have the fastest car right now, but the Dutch man continues to make sure they remain part of the conversation.
Ferrari’s Home Nightmare
If there was one team desperate for a big weekend at Monza, it was Ferrari.
The Scuderia arrived at its home race with a second power unit upgrade of the season as well as several chassis updates, and Friday practice provided some genuine reasons for optimism.
Even qualifying, despite not being particularly smooth, left Ferrari in a promising position. With Antonelli and Piastri carrying penalties, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were classified third and fourth on the starting grid.
Then the race began…
Hamilton and Leclerc went wheel-to-wheel through Turns 1 and 2, with Hamilton ending up in the gravel and dropping all the way to 10th. Things got even worse almost immediately afterwards when Leclerc crashed at Parabolica.
Just like that, Ferrari’s hopes of a memorable home victory were over.
The briton managed to recover to sixth, but it was hardly the result the team or the Tifosi had been hoping for.
For Hamilton, Monza continues to be a frustrating circuit. He has not finished higher than fifth here during this decade, and the points lost on Sunday leave him more than three race wins’ worth of points behind Antonelli in the championship.
For the Maranello team, it was another reminder that having the pace is only part of the equation.
Gasly Turns Pole Into a Strong Points Finish
Pierre Gasly had perhaps the most memorable qualifying performance of the weekend. After 191 Grand Prix starts, the Alpine driver finally secured the first pole position of his career.
Keeping that position was always going to be a much bigger challenge once the faster cars began coming through the field, but the French man drove a clever race to bring the A526 in seventh.
That made him the best of the midfield and gave him his ninth points finish of the season.
His team mate Franco Colapinto also scored in ninth despite an off-track excursion through the gravel. The result puts the Enstone team just 13 points behind Racing Bulls in the fight for fifth in the Constructors’ Championship.
Lindblad Continues to Impress
Arvid Lindblad’s rookie season is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore, after not securing any points in Zandvoort, the Racing Bulls driver secured his sixth consecutive Q3 appearance at Monza and once again put himself in a strong position to score points.
He then delivered in the race, climbing to eighth and scoring points for the eighth time in the last nine Grands Prix. That consistency is particularly impressive considering the VCARB was edged out by Alpine in terms of outright performance over the weekend.
Lindblad’s result helped limit the damage for the Faenza-based team, which maintains fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship.
For a rookie, those numbers are starting to look rather remarkable.
Aston Martin End Another Difficult Weekend
Aston Martin knew Monza was likely to be one of their more difficult weekends of the season.
The Temple of Speed exposes weaknesses in both aerodynamic efficiency and power, and the team’s Honda power unit remains one of its major deficiencies.
That was immediately apparent in qualifying, when both cars were eliminated in Q1 for the seventh time this season.
Lance Stroll suffered the 100th Q1 elimination of his career (the first ever F1 driver with such record) and was classified 22nd, while Fernando Alonso’s race ended after something broke on his car.
Stroll wasn’t able to finish either, with a suspected hydraulic issue forcing his retirement.
The result gave Aston Martin their fourth double DNF of the season — another weekend the team will be very happy to put behind them.
Haas Still Searching for Answers
Haas brought their biggest chassis upgrade package of the season to Monza, hoping it would finally help them return to the points.
Ollie Bearman also received Ferrari’s sole available power unit upgrade, adding to the team’s optimism.
The early signs weren’t bad. Bearman qualified 12th, his best grid position since reaching Q3 in China earlier in the season. Unfortunately, the race pace wasn’t enough.
Bearman couldn’t make any progress and finished 14th, while Esteban Ocon came home 16th after both drivers struggled with higher tyre degradation than their competitors.
The Kannapolis-coming team have now gone seven consecutive Grands Prix without scoring a point.
They remain seventh in the Constructors’ Championship, but with the midfield so closely contested, they will need to find something soon if they want to hold onto that position.
Frustration for Lawson, Redemption for Tsunoda
Liam Lawson’s second weekend as Red Bull’s super sub was considerably less successful than his first in Zandvoort.
Already on the back foot after Red Bull took an engine-related grid penalty, Lawson qualified 15th before the team opted to start him from the pit lane.
He made a strong start and immediately recovered several positions, but contact with Nico Hulkenberg damaged his front wing and forced an early pit stop.
That effectively ended his hopes of fighting for points.
Yuki Tsunoda, meanwhile, managed to salvage something from a difficult weekend.
The Japanese driver had looked quick in practice but was eliminated in Q1. He also failed to position the car ideally at the start of the race.
From there, however, he kept things clean and fought his way into the top 10 to score a valuable point.
It may not have been a spectacular weekend for Tsunoda, but considering this was only his second race with Racing Bulls’ new-for-2026 chassis, it was a solid recovery.
A Monza Weekend to Remember
Ultimately, Monza belonged to Kimi Antonelli.
A 20-year-old Italian starting 19th, fighting through the field and winning his home Grand Prix in a Mercedes 1-2 is the kind of story Formula 1 rarely gets to write.
But behind the champagne and the celebrations, the Italian Grand Prix also provided plenty of questions.
Can Russell fight back against his team mate? Can Ferrari turn their upgrades into consistent results? Can Red Bull give Verstappen a car capable of fighting for victories every weekend? And just how far can Lindblad go in his rookie season?
With nine races still to come, there is plenty left to be decided.
But after Monza, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: Kimi Antonelli is no longer simply the future of Italian Formula 1. He is very much its present.
We are still to see what the new Madring will bring.
