Antonelli needed only ninth place at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez to seal the championship. He finished third, behind race winner Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, at the Mexico City Grand Prix on 1 November 2026. Verstappen won in 2:20:28.772. Hamilton finished 0.799 seconds behind, with Antonelli 4.006 seconds off the winner.
The result made the Mercedes driver Formula 1’s youngest-ever world champion at 20 years and 68 days. He claimed the title in his second season, after 43 Grands Prix, beating Sebastian Vettel’s record of 23 years and 134 days. Antonelli secured the championship with four races remaining. Third place was enough, regardless of how Hamilton and teammate George Russell finished.
Antonelli had already won nine races in 2026 and taken seven pole positions. Reuters reported that he strung together five consecutive victories, from China through Monaco. By the time the championship was decided in Mexico, he had also recorded 16 podium finishes. Four rounds remained on the calendar. Before the race, he held a 123-point lead over Russell and needed only two points, or a ninth-place finish, to clinch the title even if Russell won.
His title ended a 73-year wait for an Italian world champion. Alberto Ascari was the last Italian to win the drivers’ crown, taking it with Ferrari in 1953. Antonelli, who is from Bologna, is the country’s third Formula 1 champion and its first since Ascari. His championship lead stood at 119 points after the race.
Verstappen’s victory was his third of the season and sixth at the Hermanos Rodríguez circuit. He moved into second place in the championship after arriving in Mexico too far behind Antonelli to challenge for the title. With eight laps remaining, he held off Hamilton after a restart and won by 0.799 seconds.
Red flags and safety cars disrupted the race. Ferrari’s drivers clashed on the first lap, while Valtteri Bottas retired with a suspension failure. Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll both stopped with Honda engine problems.
The Mexico result came amid a separate shift in Europe’s road-car market: the electric-car shortlist for the 2027 Car of the Year award featured seven battery-electric models: the BMW iX3, Cupra Raval, Hyundai Ioniq 3, Kia EV2, Renault Twingo, Volkswagen ID.Polo and Volvo EX60. For the first time in the award’s 63-year history, every finalist was fully electric.
