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Antonelli wins Monaco from Hamilton after dramatic ending

Antonelli wins Monaco from Hamilton after dramatic ending

Kimi Antonelli has won the past five grands prix to lead the championship by 66 points [Reuters]
Andrew Benson - F1 Correspondent in MonacoSun, June 7, 2026 at 6:50 PM UTC·5 min read

Kimi Antonelli took a dominant victory in the Monaco Grand Prix ahead of the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton after a chaotic ending that featured two safety cars and a red flag.

The 19-year-old Italian's fifth win in a row, in combination with a dire race for Mercedes team-mate George Russell, who finished 13th and out of the points, puts him in total control of the championship.

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Antonelli leads Hamilton by 66 points, with Russell now down to third, two points further adrift.

Russell dropped to the back from third place because of a drive-through penalty that he had to serve when the field was compressed two laps after the restart.

Pierre Gasly finished third for Alpine, but was immediately dropped to seventh with a penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

That promoted Red Bull's Isack Hadjar to the final podium position, ahead of McLaren's Oscar Piastri on the occasion of the team's 1,000th grand prix.

The madcap ending was one of several key stories, including:

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  • Antonelli's supreme display to take total control of the championship

  • Russell's latest dose of bad luck seemingly killing his title chances

  • A costly error from Charles Leclerc at his home race - which he refused to accept was his fault

  • The chaos caused by the track breaking up and an unusually high number of penalties - six - for drivers speeding in the pit lane

Antonelli stays cool as chaos unfolds behind him

Antonelli kept his cool through two race starts - the initial one and the final one after the red flag - to hold the lead off the line for the first time this season and utterly dominate.

An absolute masterclass from Antonelli for his first Monaco win underlined his credentials as the likely world champion this year, even if there are scheduled to be 16 races remaining.

The talk before the race was whether Antonelli could for the first time this year keep his position off the grid.

In fact, he got away well, and instead it was Max Verstappen's Red Bull alongside him who suffered an engine problem off the line and was passed by the entire field before retiring after limping around the first lap.

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That left Hamilton chasing Antonelli but any sense of competition evaporated almost immediately.

The Mercedes was 2.9 seconds clear at the end of two laps and continued to build a lead of more than five seconds by the end of 10 laps.

He had to back off a little to manage overheating brakes for 10 laps but then was able to pull away again.

Antonelli was more than 20 seconds clear of Hamilton when the first safety car was called with 18 laps to go after Lance Stroll crashed his Aston Martin at the final corner.

But even though Antonelli missed the pit lane entry the first time around - asking his engineer whether to pit and being told too late that he should - he stopped the next time around and retained his lead.

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Antonelli said: "It was one of those days where we had incredible pace. It was just coming all so natural. The car was feeling incredible and was just giving me the confidence to push.

"The job isn't finished. It's still a long season. We are going to keep pushing and keep raising the bar. The goal is to keep performing like this."

Soporific becomes surreal

Before long, what had been a soporific race turned into a surreal one.

First, Stroll crashed his Aston Martin at the final corner, causing a first safety car.

As the cars prepared to get going again, Leclerc crashed at the same place in the same way even before the race had restarted.

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Leclerc said "today I look like an idiot" but blamed his Ferrari's brakes for the crash.

He told Sky Sports: "I would hate to look at myself in the mirror and see myself finding excuses when I do a mistake, so that's why I'm always bluntly honest when I'm in front of cameras. But I'm not going to take any of it today."

That incident led to a red flag as officials took a look at the track surface at the crumbling final corner, known as Antony Noghes.

The damage to the track surface that caused the race to be red-flagged [Getty Images]

And that meant another restart that Antonelli had to negotiate, this time with the fast-starting Ferrari alongside him.

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But again he was perfect and the race surrendered to him.

Hadjar drove an excellent race battling power-unit problems and was helped by a masterstroke from Red Bull in not stopping under the first safety car, which gained him positions on Russell and Piastri.

Racing Bulls had a good day with Arvid Lindblad taking the best result of his rookie season with sixth place behind team-mate Liam Lawson.

Gasly was seventh ahead of the Williams of Alex Albon and Esteban Ocon's Haas.

The new Cadillac team were denied their first point in Formula 1 when Sergio Perez lost 10th place as a result of a 10-second penalty for being out of position at the restart after the red flag.

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Instead, the final point went to Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso, the first of the season for team and driver.

And there may be more questions as to why so many drivers - more than a quarter of the grid - ended up speeding in the pit lane. After Gasly lost third because of his penalty, Alpine requested a right of review from governing body the FIA.

The Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, with a broken front wing, after he crashed out of the Monaco Grand Prix [Getty Images]

1. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)

2. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)

3. Isack Hadjar (Red Bull)

4. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)

5. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)

6. Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls)

7. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)

8. Alex Albon (Williams)

9. Esteban Ocon (Haas)

10. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)

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