At 20, Kimi Antonelli Is Formula One's Youngest World Champion — Verstappen Wins a Chaotic Mexico City Grand Prix
Third place was all he needed, and third place is what he took: Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli clinched the title with four races to spare, becoming the first Italian champion since 1953, on a day when Max Verstappen won a race stopped for 33 minutes.
Mexico City — Formula One has a new king, and he is barely out of his teens. Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli became the sport's youngest world champion at 20 on Sunday, finishing third in a red-flagged and restarted Mexico City Grand Prix won by Red Bull's Max Verstappen, Reuters reported. Antonelli, the first Italian champion since Alberto Ascari in 1953, finished sobbing with joy over the team radio, his lead now an unassailable 119 points with four races remaining.
The afternoon had everything except calm: two safety cars, multiple crashes and a 33-minute halt with 25 of the 71 laps left, after Valtteri Bottas's suspension broke and he hit the wall. Antonelli, who started fourth and needed only to finish ninth or better to clinch, passed Charles Leclerc for third around lap 48 and managed the rest of the race from there. Verstappen crossed first, with Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton — who started from pole — a close second.
Antonelli takes the youngest-champion record from Sebastian Vettel, who was 23 when he won his first title in 2010; Antonelli is 20 years and 68 days old, with nine wins and 16 podiums this season. Verstappen's win moved him two points ahead of Hamilton in the fight for second in the standings — the only championship question left, because the biggest one was answered on Sunday in Mexico City.
