Antonelli's Monaco dominance leaves Red Bull stunned as Verstappen retires with engine failure

Kimi Antonelli claimed his fifth consecutive Formula 1 victory at the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday, setting a record as the youngest grand slam winner in the sport’s history and leaving Red Bull admitting his pace had caught them off guard. The Mercedes teenager had already edged Max Verstappen to pole position by 0.043 seconds around the street circuit, and once Verstappen retired with an engine issue off the line, Antonelli faced no meaningful challenge at the front.

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies was candid about the scale of the performance. “Kimi disappeared,” he said. “Credit to Kimi, I think he surprised all of us by being that fast around here on his second year only. I think he showed today that what he had done yesterday was not one magical lap but that he had a very serious pace.”

Mekies acknowledged that the question of whether Verstappen could have matched Antonelli’s race pace will remain unanswered. “Whether or not Max would have been able to challenge that pace, again we will never know,” he said. The Red Bull principal had been encouraged by Verstappen’s qualifying form, noting that the four-time world champion had been quicker than Antonelli in the first two qualifying sessions before narrowly missing out on pole in Q3. “Every time you manage to get Max comfortable with the car you get that extra Max effect, so I would have liked to see what he would have done in the race.”

Verstappen himself described it as “a really good weekend up until the race” but said he was “disappointed not to be on the podium”. He called for the team to understand the root cause of the retirement. “We just need to make sure that of course we finish the races. But we first need to understand what went wrong today.”

Mekies confirmed the issue had been traced to the power unit and offered an apology to his driver. “It is an engine issue. Obviously, we can only apologise to Max because the job he had done with the team to get to that level of pace around Monaco was outstanding. Probably early days to discuss what the fix is, but we think we have identified what the issue is.”

For Antonelli, the result extends a remarkable run of form and cements his status as a genuine championship contender in only his second season in Formula 1.