Kimi Antonelli: The car was a beast today. My goodness, thank you so much Mercedes

The Mercedes driver led every lap, built a commanding advantage, and shrugged off a late red-flag restart to seal a win for the ages on the streets of Monte Carlo.

Antonelli nailed both starts under intense pressure, never putting a wheel wrong. By the time the race was halted, he was so far ahead he had teammate George Russell in sight for a lap. The restart changed nothing. Even Lewis Hamilton’s fast-starting Ferrari had no answer as the 18-year-old blitzed clear once more, winning by six seconds in the frantic final laps.

Speaking immediately after the chequered flag, Antonelli’s emotion poured out over team radio: “Car was a beast today,” he said.

His engineer Peter Bonnington replied: “Get in there Kimi! Nice work pal. That was a masterclass mate. A bit tense at the end! What a great job.”

Antonelli responded: “Thank you so much. The car was a beast today. My goodness, thank you so much. It’s been an incredible weekend, an incredible race. It was one of those days we had incredible pace. It was all so natural. The car was feeling incredible and giving me the confidence to push. It was a very enjoyable day.”

He was quick to put the result in perspective: “The job isn’t finished. It’s still a long season. We have to keep pushing and raising the bar. The goal is to keep performing like this. The team has done an incredible job. They have given us an incredible car. I’ve got so much support from the team and my family, it’s a really good moment.”

The late red flag forced a standing restart, a moment that could have unravelled even experienced drivers. Antonelli admitted the interruption tested him: “I wasn’t super keen on restarting! I didn’t really want to restart but once the notification came out I gathered my emotions, thoughts and started to focus again, looked at some data and tried to focus on restarting.

“I tried to get the tyres into the right temperature. Once I got away, I knew I would make it into the first corner and from that moment I enjoyed the last few laps,” he explained.

In a later interview Antonelli added: “It’s an incredible moment to live. Of course, it’s still a long season and still many races to go, and every race weekend is going to be a new experience, but so far, it’s been great."

The Italian continued: “With the team, we’ve been doing an incredible job. I think what we’ve been doing really well is executing things, not getting carried away by the moment, just really trying to focus on what’s ahead and trying to execute it in the best way possible.

"I think this weekend we did really well on that side, especially the team. The turnaround they did with the setup was pretty significant and that allowed me to have even more confidence in the car. I try to embrace the pressure as much as possible.

"I don’t want to let the pressure destroy me like it did last year in the European season. So, of course I try to embrace the pressure, the challenge, and I try to enjoy it as much as possible without worrying about anything else other than just driving."

"For sure, it was a good test today because with the red flag, I’m not going to lie, I was a bit annoyed because getting the mindset back into redoing a full start was not easy. But it was a good test on that side and I’m happy I didn’t fail," declared the 19-year-old.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff watched with a mix of pride and concern for his other driver. Speaking to Sky Sports F1, he said: “One part of me feels so happy for Kimi and the guys made me go the podium they said ‘this is your home place, you should go’.

"But I had a look at George and he had a weekend which wasn’t good. And I want to keep it balanced emotionally. Now it’s about picking the team up, him up when we head to Barcelona," explained the Mercedes boss.

On Antonelli’s performance, Wolff was effusive: “It’s unbelievable what he’s able to deliver. Having control, he’s at times 1.5 seconds quicker than anyone else. Then restarts, builds the gap, it’s really unbelievable.”

The team had to manage the runaway leader: “It was from Bono at first, then from me! I said to him you have to tell him he has half a minute of an advantage. Then he kept putting in those times and we thought ‘maybe it’s his rhythm’.”

Antonelli’s Monaco masterclass wasn’t just about raw speed. It was about control, composure under the spotlight of the most imprtant Formula 1 race of the season, and clinical execution on one of Formula 1’s toughest tracks. Leading every lap while lapping cars and maintaining a huge buffer highlighted a driver who has rapidly grown into his role at Mercedes.

The fifth straight victory sends a clear message to the paddock: the teenager many doubted is now the benchmark. His ability to reset mentally after the red flag, nail the restart, and pull away again underlines the mental strength that was once his biggest question mark.

With the championship battle heating up, Antonelli’s words carry weight: the job isn’t finished. Yet the momentum is firmly with him and Mercedes. The Silver Arrows have the car and the driver firing in perfect harmony right now.

Barcelona next will test whether rivals can find answers. For now, the stories coming out of Monaco will be all about the teenage superstar who made the impossible look routine. A privilege to witness, indeed.