Former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard says Kimi Antonelli’s charge from 19th on the grid to win the Italian Grand Prix was a career-defining performance that sits alongside drives from the greatest drivers in the history of the series.
The Mercedes driver secured his seventh career grand prix win in front of his home crowd at Monza, becoming the first Italian driver to win the event in 60 years.
“This is up there with the greats,” Coulthard explained when reflecting on Antonelli’s performance during the Up To Speed podcast.
“I don’t want to be seen to be elevating a 20-year-old with only seven victories to his name into the echelons of Hamilton, Verstappen, Senna, Schumacher, you know, all of the multiple world champions over the history of time. Vettel, who was there tearfully demonstrating Michael Schumacher’s former world championship car.
“To position your car to keep out of trouble, to do everything that he did, put a different helmet in there… If that was a Schumacher, if that was a Max, if that was a Senna, you would have gone, ‘Yeah, of course we’re seeing this because that’s what we’re used to seeing for them.’
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
“There has to be a first time for everything, which is why he is something like a phenomenon because that’s the high-water line for Kimi right now. That’s the best grand prix he’s ever driven. It’s the best victory he’s ever had. And that tells us now what he’s capable of. We knew he was a winner. We now know he’s a racer and a winner.”
Antonelli’s win at Monza extended his lead in the drivers’ championship. He now holds a 66-point advantage over his team-mate George Russell in the standings. Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton follows in third, 76 points behind Antonelli.
