{"id":627627,"date":"2026-10-11T20:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T20:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/627627\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T20:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T20:36:11","slug":"kimi-antonelli-admits-he-can-taste-f1-glory-after-verstappen-wins-singapore-gp-formula-one-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/627627\/","title":{"rendered":"Kimi Antonelli admits he can taste F1 glory after Verstappen wins Singapore GP | Formula One 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kimi Antonelli said he can finally dare to dream about winning his first Formula One world championship after he finished in third place at the Singapore Grand Prix and put himself in a position where he could secure the title at the next round in Austin.<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen won with a dominant drive<\/a> at the Marina Bay circuit but behind him, Antonelli\u2019s podium means he could become F1\u2019s youngest champion at the age of 20, in two weeks\u2019 time. Antonelli leads his Mercedes teammate, George Russell, by 102 points and Ferrari\u2019s Lewis Hamilton by 111. With six meetings remaining and 25 points for the winner of each race, the Italian will take the title if he wins in Austin and Russell finishes ninth or lower and Hamilton fifth or lower.<\/p>\n

When asked if he dared to dream that his childhood ambition of becoming champion was within reach, he acknowledged he did with a smile. \u201cFor sure,\u201d he said. \u201cI know it\u2019s very close, I know it\u2019s there but I just need to make sure that I keep doing the best I can. The mindset is always the same, to go out there and win and perform the best way I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mercedes were outpaced by Red Bull in Singapore, with the silver arrows still striving to exploit recent upgrades but Antonelli feels he and the team will have more to come in Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis weekend I haven\u2019t particularly driven that well,\u201d he added. \u201cI felt like I could have done a better job but I feel confident that a week to reset and I\u2019m really looking forward to being back in Austin. But at the end of the day, if I don\u2019t do my job well, then the result won\u2019t come. So in order to achieve what I want, I need to perform, as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamilton, who finished sixth, issued an apology to his Ferrari team after his call to not pit under the virtual safety car proved costly, leaving him vulnerable on worn tyres at the death, where he was passed by three rivals. He was unwell after the race and given leave to miss his media duties but Ferrari issued a comment from the British driver. \u201cA painful lesson today but I take full responsibility for the decisions I made,\u201d the 41-year-old said. \u201cNot every call will work out and I can accept getting it wrong but I\u2019m sorry for the team for the points we lost today.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Ferrari team principal, Fred Vasseur, made it clear the team had not been at fault. \u201cWe were P2, P3 on track, we called two of our guys to pit behind the VSC, one of our guys said: \u2018No I prefer to stay on track\u2019, or he missed pit entry. Don\u2019t blame the team,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kimi Antonelli said he can finally dare to dream about winning his first Formula One world championship after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-627627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}