Verstappen and Hamilton mock Antonelli's starts after teenager takes Monaco pole

Kimi Antonelli put his Mercedes on pole for the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix, but the championship leader was upstaged in the post-qualifying press conference when Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton delivered a deadpan masterclass in trolling their younger rival over his race-start struggles.

Antonelli, 19, heads into the Monaco weekend 43 points clear of team-mate George Russell at the top of the drivers’ standings, yet his getaways have been a recurring weakness. When a journalist asked the two multi-world champions — Verstappen starting second, Hamilton third — whether they had any advice for the polesitter, neither missed a beat.

“So when the lights go out, you wait one second, and then that’s my advice,” said four-time champion Verstappen. Hamilton leaned into the microphone and added: “Yeah, two seconds.”

Antonelli took the ribbing in good humour and acknowledged the issue directly. “The start in Montreal — for the first time I didn’t lose, well, I still lost a place on Sunday, but for the first time I didn’t lose like six or seven places,” he said. “So it was a step forward. It’s a pretty short run in Monaco into Turn 1. I just need to get a clean start, don’t try to do the magic start, and then we see from there.”

The exchange quickly spread across social media, with fans celebrating the dynamic between three drivers from markedly different generations of the sport. “Big brothers energy,” one Reddit user wrote, while another called them “Kimi’s fun uncles.” A third comment captured the broader sentiment: “We are really lucky to see generational talents from three different generations compete at the front at the same time.”

Several fans drew comparisons to a recent moment in Canada, where Hamilton mimicked Verstappen’s thumbs-up gesture after McLaren’s tyre-strategy call. “Max and Lewis together like this is really entertaining,” one post read. “The double thumbs up and now this — I hope we get more.”

For Antonelli, the banter aside, pole position at one of the calendar’s most unforgiving circuits is a significant statement. A clean launch off the line on race day would go a long way toward silencing — at least temporarily — the friendly advice from his elders.