Kimi Antonelli in tears—the dream has come true: “We did it!”

Andrea Kimi Antonelli is the Formula 1 world champion: he fulfilled his lifelong dream at just twenty years old. In Mexico, he finished in third place and became the youngest world champion in the history of Formula 1, and the first Italian since Alberto Ascari—after a 73-year wait.

After crossing the finish line, the Mercedes driver couldn’t hide his emotion and burst into tears: “We did it, thank you all, we did it,” he said over the radio, amid the cheers and congratulations from Toto Wolff and the Mercedes pit wall.

“We did it—without Mercedes and my family, I wouldn’t be here. I’ll cherish this moment forever; I’m speechless. Me on the podium with Verstappen and Hamilton? It makes everything even more special—truly incredible. Was I nervous? I felt the tension this weekend, but now I’m overjoyed. Thank you all,” he said after the race.

As soon as he stepped out of the car, the driver from Bologna hugged his mom, dad, and little sister before diving into the crowd of mechanics for the traditional post-Grand Prix celebration.

Third place came at the end of a chaotic race. On lap 41, the race was halted due to Valtteri Bottas’s violent crash: his Cadillac suffered a failure in the left front suspension—likely while braking—and crashed into the barriers at high speed. The car was destroyed, but the Finnish driver emerged unharmed.

After the debris was cleared, all lap times were nullified and the race restarted from the grid, with Verstappen in the lead ahead of the two Ferraris driven by Leclerc and Hamilton and Antonelli’s Mercedes. Max Verstappen won in his Red Bull, ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who finished second in his Ferrari. Behind Antonelli were Charles Leclerc in fourth, former world champion Lando Norris in fifth, and George Russell’s other Mercedes in sixth.