Antonelli clinches title as Ferrari mess helps Verstappen win
Kimi Antonelli became Formula 1's youngest ever world champion at the age of 20 by finishing third in a Mexican Grand Prix won by Max Verstappen after yet more angst between Ferrari team-mates Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
Leclerc instantly attacked polesitter Hamilton into the first corner, then again into the Turn 4 complex, where he went down the outside and both braked too late and went off the track.
While Hamilton followed stewards' guidelines and quickly pulled back onto the track - where he was immediately pounced on and overtaken by Verstappen's Red Bull - Leclerc cut the second part of the corner completely and emerged with a substantial lead.
The stewards eventually opted to give him a five-second time penalty, with the fact Hamilton had braked too late too as a mitigating factor that prevented it being the expected 10s.
That left Verstappen bemused and Hamilton enraged, the latter arguing vociferously over team radio that the stewards had handed victory to Leclerc by allowing him to continue in clean air out front.
That didn't turn out to be the case, with Leclerc's penalty enough to drop him behind Verstappen when they made their first pitstops.
The race was then reset by a red flag for barrier repairs when Valtteri Bottas's Cadillac had a suspension failure and high-speed impact at Turn 1 on lap 45 of 71. Bottas went to the medical centre for checks but was unhurt.
Hamilton lost third to Antonelli by pitting as the safety car came out for the Bottas crash before being upgraded to a red flag, with the stewards then deciding to take the order from earlier on countback and reinstated Hamilton to third.
From there, at the standing restart, he made a better getaway than second-placed Leclerc and overtook his team-mate again before attacking Verstappen for the lead on the outside into Turn 1, where minor contact was made between them.
As Verstappen emerged in front (and the stewards quickly ruled no action was necessary), Leclerc had a massive lock-up in the leaders' wake and soon lost third to Antonelli as he struggled with resultant tyre damage.
A safety car for Arvid Lindblad's Racing Bulls being fired into the Turn 1 barriers while battling Oscar Piastri's McLaren for seventh gave Hamilton another chance to attack Verstappen but the Red Bull held firm and clinched a third win in the last four grands prix.
Third proved more than enough for Antonelli to seal a remarkable title in only his second F1 season.
Leclerc clung on to fourth under massive pressure from Lando Norris's McLaren as the 2025 champion's reign ended.
George Russell's title bid officially fizzled out in underwhelming fashion. What appeared to be a deployment problem on the run to Turn 1 at the start left his Mercedes swamped by the pack and he then picked up a 10s penalty for sending Isack Hadjar's Red Bull into a spin further around the opening lap. Sixth behind the Leclerc/Norris battle and ahead of Piastri's battered McLaren was the best he could do after that.
Liam Lawson recovered from his pitlane start - after being disqualified from qualifying - to take ninth for Racing Bulls between the Alpines of Franco Colapinto (8th) and Pierre Gasly (10th).
Audi's Nico Hulkenberg and Haas's Ollie Bearman had been in the hunt for those final points before Hulkenberg ran into the back of Bearman at the late restart, ending the Haas's race and getting himself a penalty.
Hadjar could only recover to 12th between Gabriel Bortoleto's Audi and Haas's Esteban Ocon replacement Ryo Hirakawa after his clash with Russell.
Aston Martin's awful season reached what felt like another nadir with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll retiring within seconds of each other only a few laps into the race.
