Antonelli Starts Nineteenth and Finishes First — Monza Gets Its Italian at Last
Mercedes made the call on Tuesday and spent the rest of the week defending it: a fifth internal combustion engine for Kimi Antonelli, plus a new energy store and control electronics, and a grid penalty that left the man leading the World Championship starting nineteenth in front of his own grandstands. Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin had described Monza as an energy-starved circuit with four overtaking zones where no driver can defend all of them. It reads better on Monday than it did on Friday.
An early red flag cut the race to 53 laps and handed the field a reset, and from there Antonelli simply kept arriving. He took the same pit strategy as Max Verstappen, came out with tyres that still had something in them, and made the winning move on George Russell on the approach to Ascari with the race nearly done. Russell held on for second at +3.8s; Verstappen was third at +14.7s, his best Sunday in months and still without a win this year. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finished fourth and fifth, two tenths apart and not on speaking terms about it. Ferrari's home weekend ended with Charles Leclerc in the barriers and Lewis Hamilton sixth.
The arithmetic is now unfriendly to everyone who is not Antonelli. He leaves Italy on 267, with Russell on 201, Hamilton on 191 and Norris on 171. Mercedes lead the constructors' table by 122. Ten rounds remain, the first of them on Sunday at a circuit nobody has raced on, which is the only real argument the chasers have left.
Toyota Lead COTA With Twelve Minutes Left. Then the Hydraulics Go.
Six hours in Texas came down to twelve minutes. The #7 Toyota was leading and chasing a win the marque has never taken at the Circuit of the Americas when a hydraulic pressure failure ended its afternoon on the spot. The #50 Ferrari of Nicklas Nielsen and crew, already in position off a set of well-timed stops, took the win; Cadillac's #38 was second and Alpine's #35 third. Heart of Racing's Aston Martin won LMGT3.
Toyota still lead BMW at the top of the Hypercar manufacturers' table, but by a margin that a single bad Sunday erases — and there are only three of those left, at Fuji on 27 September, Barcelona in October and Monza in November. Ferrari, third and quietly closer than they were on Saturday, are not out of it either.
Around the Paddock
Nineteen points, three riders, and Italy on Sunday
Marc Márquez's Aragón double put him second on 237, within 19 of Jorge Martín and two clear of Marco Bezzecchi. Misano can leave any of the three in front.
Bell ends a 33-race drought to open the Chase in the Southern 500
Rain brought an eight-minute red flag with 29 to go; Bell took tyres, Kyle Larson stayed out, and the pass came with 12 laps left. Bell is now second, 12 behind Denny Hamlin.
The Madring opens for business: 22 corners and a 24 per cent bank
F1's first new venue since Las Vegas is 5.416km around IFEMA, with Turn 12 — La Monumental — a 550-metre banked 180 taken at up to 200km/h. Fifty-seven laps, Sunday at 15:00 local.
McLaughlin closes the season; Palou's fifth title was already banked
Scott McLaughlin led home Kyle Kirkwood and Alexander Rossi at Monterey. Álex Palou had clinched at Milwaukee a week earlier; Kirkwood took second in the standings out of a four-point scrap.
Evans takes a 20-point lead into gravel he has never much liked
Sami Pajari's Paraguay win closed it to 20 with three rounds left. Rally Chile Bío Bío starts Thursday, and Toyota can wrap the manufacturers' title there.
“He pushed me off”: Norris and Piastri go to della Roggia, McLaren shrug
Lap 51, fourth place, Norris on the grass and on the radio. Andrea Stella called the episode “much more benign” on review and defended letting them race — but the team will look at it again.