Antonelli's mysterious spin and balance woes cost him Brazilian GP victory on title-winning day

Kimi Antonelli led the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos before an unexplained spin on lap 20 ended his victory bid, leaving the Mercedes driver to finish behind Lando Norris and concede further positions to Isack Hadjar and Max Verstappen. The result was bitter for Antonelli personally, though it was softened by Mercedes securing the Formula 1 constructors’ championship on the same afternoon.

Antonelli had taken the lead from polesitter Norris at the start and was building a comfortable advantage through the opening laps. The gap narrowed after Norris executed an undercut during the first round of pit stops, but Antonelli retained the lead heading into lap 20 — until he suddenly lost the rear of his car at the opening corner and spun.

“No warning, nothing,” Antonelli said. “But already, to be fair, when I put the soft on, I felt something weird with the car. We need to check what happened, but on the other hand, shame, because we lost the race there.”

Before the spin, Antonelli had radioed concerns about a possible suspension issue, reporting that the car was pulling to one side under acceleration. He later identified the problem as specific to left-hand corners, particularly at higher speeds — a significant handicap around Interlagos, where much of the first and third sectors are defined by fast left-handers.

The flat spots the tyres sustained during the spin compounded his difficulties, and he dropped behind both Hadjar and Verstappen in the aftermath. A second set of soft tyres later in the race improved his pace noticeably, and he was able to mount a late challenge on Hadjar, but the damage had already been done.

“I’m very disappointed for the race. I’m very angry, to be fair,” Antonelli said. “But I’m going to put all this aside for now because the team clinched the title. They all deserve it, and I’m very proud to be part of this group. But talking about the race specifically — yeah, very disappointing. We were on for the win up to that point.”

Mercedes have yet to identify a definitive cause for the handling anomaly, with Antonelli indicating the team needed to inspect the rear geometry of the car. The 2026 world champion — who secured the drivers’ title earlier in the season — will hope for clearer answers before the next round.