Antonelli stuns Wolff with Monaco grand slam to stretch F1 championship lead to 66 points

Kimi Antonelli claimed his first Formula 1 grand slam at the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday, winning from pole position, leading every lap, and setting the fastest lap to extend his drivers’ championship lead to 66 points. The result was Antonelli’s fifth consecutive victory of the 2026 season and set a new record for the youngest driver to achieve a grand slam in F1, at just 19 years, nine months and 13 days old — eclipsing Max Verstappen’s previous record by almost four years.

Mercedes had entered the Monaco weekend expecting a genuine challenge from Ferrari on a street circuit not traditionally considered a strength for the Silver Arrows. That challenge never arrived. Antonelli built a 30-second lead before a safety car period was triggered by Lance Stroll’s crash, with his pace leaving the field — and his own team — searching for answers.

“We were surprised ourselves about that speed,” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said after the race. “The laps he was pulling — the times were two seconds faster than the McLarens, and a solid plus one second faster than Ferrari. And it was like clockwork. Why that is on a track that we would have not considered to be our strengths before the weekend, I don’t know.”

Antonelli’s qualifying lap on Saturday had already signalled something special was coming. Wolff described watching the live GPS data during the final session, convinced his driver was about to fall short as Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen set blistering benchmarks through the swimming pool section.

“Seeing Charles flying into the swimming pool section — that is the fastest I’ve seen a car coming in there, on the limit sideways. And then Max topped it,” Wolff recalled. “We were tracing Kimi’s lap and it looked like he was just not going to make it, and then out of nowhere, in the last two corners, he made the difference and he was on pole. Looking at the onboard afterwards, it was unbelievable.”

Mercedes have now won every grand prix of the 2026 season, with Antonelli and teammate George Russell sharing the victories. Antonelli leads Lewis Hamilton by 66 points in the drivers’ standings, a margin that underlines just how complete his start to life as a Formula 1 race driver has been.