{"id":887470,"date":"2026-09-08T02:58:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T02:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/887470\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T02:58:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T02:58:14","slug":"mark-hughes-the-new-jim-clark-antonellis-monza-win-was-one-of-the-greatest-f1-has-seen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/887470\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Hughes: The new Jim Clark? Antonelli’s Monza win was one of the greatest F1 has seen"},"content":{"rendered":"

The size of Kimi Antonelli<\/a>\u2019s accomplishment in winning the Italian Grand Prix from 19th on the grid dwarfs any of the \u2018yes, but\u2019 counterpoints of what was in his favour. It was one of the all-time great performances from a driver who is already a great. The rest of the world is just beginning to catch up.<\/p>\n

What we glimpsed in his disastrous but stunning first FP1 at this very track two years ago is now just playing out as the gods ordered. This was a performance for the ages, to be spoken of in the same breath as the past deeds of Nuvolari, Rosemeyer, Fangio, Clark, Senna, etc. We saw it at Monaco; we saw it even more convincingly here.<\/p>\n

George Russell<\/a> \u2013 leader for much of the race from the front row of the grid, beaten by a guy in the same car who started 17 places behind him \u2013 could be excused for feeling devastated and deeply shaken. But he\u2019s being compared to a phenomenon.<\/p>\n

But OK, let\u2019s get the \u2018yes, buts\u2019 out of the way.<\/p>\n

Mercedes PU advantage at Monza<\/p>\n

\"Kimi<\/p>\n

The Mercedes<\/a> power unit was a step ahead of the rest at Monza<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Grand Prix Photo\n <\/p>\n

The margin by which the Mercedes power unit is the fastest was exaggerated at Monza<\/a> by the track layout. An advantage of 10bhp at Monza will buy you a massive 0.35sec per lap. At Hungaroring<\/a> and Zandvoort<\/a>, those numbers are 0.185sec and 0.215sec respectively. It\u2019s the most power-rewarding track of the season by a long way.<\/p>\n

Neither the updated Ferrari<\/a> nor Red Bull<\/a> power units could hold a candle to it around a place with such extended flat-out running. Furthermore, the Mercedes<\/a> W17 Antonelli and Russell drive had a big advantage around Monza<\/a> over the identically powered McLaren<\/a> because of their respective gearing.<\/p>\n

Pierre Gasly<\/a> scored a superb pole in the Mercedes<\/a>-powered Alpine<\/a>, but that was largely through that team\u2019s much better exploitation of the power of the tow in exaggerating that Merc PU advantage \u2013 and the way the big teams all tripped themselves up in that regard. The Alpine quickly dropped down to its natural level in the race, with Gasly a respectable seventh at the flag. So, no contest, the Mercedes W17 was the fastest car in the field by a big margin.<\/p>\n

Passing at Monza<\/p>\n

The layout makes for one of the easiest tracks on the calendar on which to overtake. At most tracks, a lap time advantage of around 1.5sec will be needed to make an on-track pass. It\u2019s less than half that here. Which of course is why Mercedes chose this race for Antonelli to take his PU grid penalties. At least it maximised his chances of taking points from the back of the grid.<\/p>\n

Then, there\u2019s the new era yo-yo racing style to consider and how that also helped. The regulation PU boost facility is very powerful.<\/p>\n

Early red flag<\/p>\n

Starting on the hard \u2013 0.7sec slower than the soft, 0.2sec slower than the medium, but with race-long durability \u2013 and running long was a sound strategy from where Antonelli was starting; clear the slower cars when on the slower tyre, saving the faster tyre for when you\u2019re up against faster cars later on. But when Charles Leclerc<\/a>\u2019s angry over-striving brought out the red flags at the end of the second lap and Antonelli was already up to 12th, a whole new strategic vista opened up.<\/p>\n

\"Kimi<\/p>\n

Antonelli was 12th by the time the red flag came out<\/p>\n

\n Grand Prix Photo\n <\/p>\n

With a free choice of tyres for the restart, he could get straight onto the faster medium, ready to pick off the quicker midfield cars in quick succession without the sort of delay he\u2019d have endured had he still been on the hards. That put him straight onto the tail of the top team train. No longer destined to use up valuable tyre life on passing cars with a smaller performance deficit to him than now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked at the screens and as soon as I saw he was P4\/P5, I knew he was going to be a factor,\u201d said a resigned Russell. That was just two laps into the restart. The field spread of time \u2013 Russell to Antonelli \u2013 had of course also been minimised by the red flag and restart. That alone saved Antonelli around six seconds of time loss to the front.<\/p>\n

Strategy divergence<\/p>\n

So Antonelli on his mediums was up with Russell \u2013 who had swapped his original mediums for hards at the restart \u2013 just 11 laps into the restarted race. He\u2019d passed Bortoleto, Ocon, Bearman, Lindblad, Norris, Piastri, Hamilton and Verstappen in quick succession to be there.<\/p>\n

But at this point, Russell could conceivably be going through without stopping again while that was unfeasible for Antonelli on his mediums. That was going to be the price of that quick progress through the midfield to the front. At some point he was going to lose 24sec to Russell by pitting as George stayed out. It would then have been a question of whether he could\u2019ve made up the 24sec on Russell in the remaining time. Logically, he would have fallen short. But logic can be shimmied and sidestepped when you\u2019re dealing with genius, so it wasn\u2019t a given that this was Russell\u2019s race, but it was looking likely.<\/p>\n

The influence of Max Verstappen<\/a>\u2019s brilliant performance here in a Red Bull with degrading dampers (again) upon the strategy choices made by Mercedes when there was a VSC (for Lance Stroll<\/a>\u2019s broken-down Aston Martin<\/a>) cannot be overstated. Max on his mediums had even briefly managed to overtake the hard-tyred Russell for the lead just before Antonelli arrived on their tail.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we can\u2019t keep up here with the Mercedes deployment,\u201d explained Max of how driving into uncleared air heavily penalised the Red Bull. \u201cI struggled even to clear the McLarens. We were good through Turn 5 [Roggia chicane entry] so I was able to overtake but as soon as I was in the lead I couldn\u2019t defend as [Russell] had so much more deployment.\u201d Verstappen led the 14th lap but two laps later was behind both Mercs and would fall ever further back from them.<\/p>\n

\"George<\/p>\n

Verstappen could do nothing to stay in touch with the Mercedes<\/p>\n

\n Grand Prix Photo\n <\/p>\n

But when the VSC came on lap 28, he was still a factor. Russell and Antonelli had thrillingly diced, sometimes inches apart at 200mph until Antonelli was called off. \u201cGeorge is trying to build a gap over Verstappen. He can\u2019t do that if he\u2019s racing you,\u201d Kimi was told. So for a few laps he just cruised in second place, but such was the power of the tow that Russell couldn\u2019t build that gap to Verstappen with no-one in front of him.<\/p>\n

The stalemate was broken by the VSC, which was the perfect opportunity for Antonelli to make the tyre change, which was inevitable anyway because the mediums were never going to go the distance. Russell could have been pitted at this point too, with Antonelli stacked. But he was on the hards and didn\u2019t necessarily need another stop.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe VSC came just at the moment where it wasn\u2019t clear if stopping or continuing would be better,\u201d said George afterwards. \u201cSo I guess it made sense for the team to split its strategy.\u201d Complicating matters further, Perez \u2013 a lap down \u2013 came out of the pits directly in front of Russell on track and, with a damaged Cadillac<\/a> took an age to get up to even the VSC delta speed. Which cost Russell four seconds.<\/p>\n

So by the time the VSC was cleared, Antonelli (who\u2019d dropped to sixth in his change to another set of mediums) was only 14sec behind Russell with 24 laps to go, with Verstappen \u2013 who\u2019d also stopped \u2013 just behind him. Had Verstappen not been a threat, there\u2019d have been no need for Mercedes to split its strategy and Russell could have had a precautionary tyre change too, calling pit stop priority as the lead car at the time of the VSC.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the \u2018yes, buts\u2019 accounted for.<\/p>\n

\"George<\/p>\n

Russell had to concede Antonelli was the better driver<\/p>\n

\n Mercedes\n <\/p>\n

The way it turned out, Antonelli\u2019s new mediums were sufficiently faster than Russell\u2019s old hards for Antonelli to make the difference up. Now freed of having to drive to Russell\u2019s concerns about Verstappen, Antonelli let rip and it was magnificent. Needing to make up 0.6sec per lap on his team-mate while also passing Gasly, Norris, Hamilton and Piastri and keeping his tyres in shape, his full-attack into and through the corners \u2013 tyre sidewalls hanging over the track limit lines through the fast corners every time, without deviation \u2013 was improbable and outrageous. That said, Verstappen in his wake was initially almost as fast before the Red Bull\u2019s tyres cried enough. But he followed Antonelli past the Alpine, Ferrari and McLarens to put himself a distant third.<\/p>\n

The Mercedes strategy divergence had allowed Antonelli to get Russell\u2019s race out of his hair. But was Antonelli\u2019s a better strategy? There\u2019s no evidence of that either way. Switch strategies and does one-stopping Antonelli get beaten by two-stopping Russell? Doubtful. The virtuosity of Antonelli\u2019s performance was the dominant factor here, not the strategy difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The size of Kimi Antonelli\u2019s accomplishment in winning the Italian Grand Prix from 19th on the grid dwarfs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":887471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[306625,49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-887470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-2026-italian-gp","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=887470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}