Motorsports

Antonelli takes his fifth Grand Prix win in a row in race interrupted by crashes after asphalt breaks apart.

Formula One championship leader Kimi Antonelli stayed ice-cool to ⁠win a ⁠chaotic Monaco Grand Prix and extend his run of victories this season to five.

The 19-year-old Italian built a ⁠commanding lead on Sunday after starting from pole in his Mercedes but that evaporated after a late red flag to inspect a crumbling ⁠surface at the final corner following a crash that took out Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

After a delay of about 40 minutes while repairs were carried out, the race resumed with a standing start but Antonelli remained unfazed ‌as he became the youngest-ever winner of the iconic race.

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was runner-up for the second successive Grand Prix with Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar provisionally third, although he was one of a number of drivers under investigation for a variety of infringements.

Hamilton, who equalled the late Ayrton Senna’s eight Monaco podiums, ⁠moved above Antonelli’s teammate George Russell into ⁠second place in the standings, 66 points behind Antonelli.

“It’s been an incredible weekend and an incredible race,” said Antonelli, who was not even born the last time an ⁠Italian won the Monaco Grand Prix – Jarno Trulli in 2004.

“We had incredible pace and it all ⁠came so natural and that gave me ⁠the confidence to push.”

A year after finishing last on his F1 debut at Monaco, Antonelli showed incredible poise to shrug off the red flag drama that meant he effectively ‌had to win two races.

“I wasn’t super keen on re-starting but once the notification came out I just gathered my emotions and ‌re-focused ‌again. Once I got away and was P1 into the first corner I could enjoy the last few laps.”

Formula One racing sensation Kimi Antonelli made a mockery of suggestions that the Monaco Grand ⁠⁠Prix would stall his incredible start ⁠⁠to the season by producing a stunning qualifying lap to stick his Mercedes on pole position.

The qualifying battle lived up to expectations, with provisional pole changing hands several times before the 19-year-old championship leader snatched it with his ⁠⁠final lap on Saturday.

He edged out Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.043 seconds to become the first Italian since Jarno Trulli in 2004 to take pole position in the principality.

“It was one of those laps that we call a magic lap. I was able to put it all together. It was such a close ⁠⁠qualifying with Max,” Antonelli, who clocked 1:12.051 (1 minute and 12.051 seconds) to claim his fourth pole in six races this season, said.

“I knew the last lap was good; I was just hoping that it would be enough, but it was very close.”

Antonelli is the youngest driver to lead the championship, having won the last four races, but the unique nature of Monaco’s twisting circuit, full of slow corners, was supposed to take away the Mercedes power advantage.

Ferrari pair on second row

Ferrari have been strongly tipped as ‌‌race favourites but had to be content with the second row on Sunday’s grid, with Lewis Hamilton third quickest, 0.228 seconds slower, and local favourite Charles Leclerc, winner of the race in 2024, fourth.

Leclerc had been on provisional pole with time running out in Q3 – the third and final session of qualifying – but clipped the wall on his final lap as he tried to wrestle it back, stopping his car at Rascasse.

Ferrari dominated Friday’s two practice sessions, with Hamilton and Leclerc first and second in both, although Antonelli was quickest in Saturday’s final practice.

“Congrats to Kimi. Mega, mega job. Having your first pole here is so special,” three-time Monaco champion Hamilton, who is yet to win a race for Ferrari, said.

“It was tough for us. We were looking so strong in practice, and ⁠⁠we barely changed anything, but the car was drastically different once we got to qualifying for some reason.”

Isack Hadjar, in ⁠⁠the second Oracle Red Bull, bounced back from a nasty crash in Friday practice to qualify fifth, with Antonelli’s teammate George Russell, who trails him by 43 points in the standings, a disappointing sixth.

Reigning world champion and last year’s Monaco winner Lando Norris will be on the fourth row alongside fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, with the team’s hopes of victory in ⁠⁠their 1,000th Grand Prix now looking slender.

‘The walls start coming closer’

Antonelli finished 18th and last at the Monaco Grand Prix 12 months ago, and he was expected to feel the pressure of leading the standings on his return.

But he ⁠⁠now has a golden chance to continue his dream start to the season by emulating Trulli, ⁠⁠who converted his pole into a victory in his Renault in 2004.

“I think this is one of the most intensive, if not the most intense, qualifying sessions of the year, and it takes a massive effort,” he said. “When it is about finding the last two tenths, it is not easy because the walls start coming closer.

“But I felt great this morning, and I am happy that we ‌‌could finish the job today.”

Of the last 22 Monaco Grands Prix, only six have been won by a driver who did not start on pole, such is the extreme difficulty of overtaking on the narrow, twisty circuit that snakes round the stunning Mediterranean playground.

The last three editions have all been won by the ‌‌top ‌‌driver in qualifying, but Hamilton did win from third on the grid in 2016, and with Verstappen showing great speed here this year, Antonelli will be taking nothing for granted.

“If you would have told me yesterday I would be on the front row, I would have taken it,” Verstappen said.

Zanardi, who lost his legs in a racing crash, was credited with helping transform the perception of disability in Italy.

Alex Zanardi, the Italian Formula One driver who became a Paralympic cycling champion after losing both legs in an accident, has died aged 59, his family announced.

Zanardi, one of his country’s most loved and respected sportsmen, who was credited with helping transform the perception of disability in Italy, died on Friday evening.

In a statement issued on Saturday through the charity he founded, Obiettivo3, his family said he died “suddenly”, but also “peacefully, surrounded by the love of his family and friends”.

“The family would like to express ⁠their heartfelt thanks to all those who are showing their support at this time and ⁠asks that their grief and privacy be ⁠respected during this period of mourning.”

Zanardi’s death comes six years after the four-time Paralympic gold medal winner suffered a second horror crash in June 2020, when his handbike crashed into an oncoming truck during a race in Tuscany.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hailed Zanardi as “a great champion and an extraordinary man, capable of turning every trial of life into a lesson in courage, strength and dignity”.

Cordiano Dagnoni, head of the Italian Cycling Federation, said he “transformed the culture of our country, bringing joy and happiness to those fortunate enough to know him, and hope to so many in Italy and around the world”.

He said there would be a minute’s silence observed at this weekend’s races in tribute to the athlete.

Zanardi raced for Jordan, Minardi and Lotus in F1 in the early 1990s before switching to the CART championship in the United States where he was series champion in 1997 and 1998.

He returned to F1 with Williams in 1999 before heading back to CART.

Zanardi almost died in a horrific accident in 2001 at the Lausitzring track in Germany, after which he had both legs amputated.

His car had stalled in the middle of the track after a spin and was struck by another car at a speed of more than 300km/h (186mph).

Yet he went on to become one of the best-known figures in Paralympic sports, winning two gold medals at the 2012 London Games and two more in Rio de Janeiro, four years later.

In June 2020, he was involved in another terrible accident, this time in Tuscany. He suffered serious head injuries and only returned home 18 months later.

Zanardi, born in Bologna on October 23, 1966, leaves his wife Daniela and son Niccolo.

Barcelona’s Yamal bags Young Sportsperson of the Year accolade a year after winning the Breakthrough award in 2025.

Tennis ruled the red carpet in Madrid as Aryna Sabalenka and Carlos Alcaraz were crowned Sportswoman and Sportsman of the Year at the Laureus Awards.

The pair were honoured on Monday after glittering 2025 campaigns that saw them finish atop the women’s and men’s tennis rankings, respectively.

Spaniard Alcaraz, 22, reclaimed the year-end world number one spot after capturing two Grand Slam titles at the French Open and US Open, underlining his supremacy across surfaces.

Belarusian Sabalenka, 27, meanwhile, stood alongside him in the winners’ circle in New York and also reached the final in Australia and France, capping a season of relentless consistency.

With her triumph, Sabalenka joins a roll call of Laureus Sportswoman of the Year recipients from her sport, including Serena Williams, Jennifer Capriati, Justine Henin and Naomi Osaka.

Barcelona and Spain athlete Lamine Yamal, 18, won the Young Sportsperson of the Year award. It is the second award for the young Barca forward after being voted Breakthrough Sportsperson of the Year in 2025, making him the youngest athlete to have won two Laureus awards.

German football great Toni Kroos won the world sporting inspiration award, and retired gymnast Nadia Comaneci got the lifetime achievement prize.

The world action sportsperson award went to American snowboarder Chloe Kim.

Brazilian Gabriel Araujo was the world sportsperson of the year with a disability.

In a first for the awards, the ceremony was hosted by two athletes – both former Laureus winners – Novak Djokovic and Eileen Gu. Last year’s top honours went to gymnast Simone Biles and pole-vaulter Mondo Duplantis.

McIlroy takes comeback prize

Elsewhere, Rory McIlroy claimed the World Comeback of the Year Award after ending an 11-year wait to complete the career Grand Slam with a playoff victory at the 2025 Masters, a title he defended in 2026.

Formula One’s Lando Norris was named World Breakthrough of the Year, while Paris St Germain took World Team of the Year after a trophy haul in 2025 that included the French league and Cup, plus their first Champions League crown.

The Laureus World Sports Awards nominees are selected by the global media, while the winners are determined by the 69 members of the Laureus World Sports Academy.

The awards have been presented annually since 2000.

Laureus winners 2026:

• World Sportsman of the Year Award: Carlos Alcaraz
• World Sportswoman of the Year Award: Aryna Sabalenka
• World Team of the Year Award: Paris Saint-Germain
• World Breakthrough of the Year Award: Lando Norris
• World Comeback of the Year Award: Rory McIlroy
• World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability Award: Gabriel Araujo
• World Action Sportsperson of the Year Award: Chloe Kim
• World Young Sportsperson of the Year Award: Lamine Yamal
• Laureus Sporting Inspiration Award: Toni Kroos
• Lifetime Achievement Award: Nadia Comaneci
• Laureus Sport for Good Award: Futbol Mas