antonelli's 66-point lead is down to 25
three race weekends ago the championship looked finished, and now russell and hamilton are both within 32 points going into spa.
after monaco, kimi antonelli had won five races in a row and led the championship by 66 points. i had mentally handed him the trophy. three race weekends later the lead is 25, and i’d like to formally retract everything i thought in june.
the damage, weekend by weekend. barcelona: retired with five laps left, right after banging wheels with his own teammate. austria: ran wide on the first two laps and finished third. silverstone: won the sprint, took pole, then broke a wheel shield on a kerb and finished P15. that’s 23 points from three weekends. george russell scored 66 in the same stretch and lewis hamilton scored 57.
so the standings going to spa are antonelli 179, russell 154, hamilton 147. the mercedes mercenary is one race win away from making this very uncomfortable, and hamilton (who is 41, in case anyone forgot) is 32 back in a ferrari that has won two of the last three grands prix.
is antonelli cracking? i don’t think so. he’s still the fastest driver out there: he has five of the nine poles, and mercedes hasn’t lost one all season. the car let him down in spain. but the wheel shield at silverstone was him taking too much kerb at copse, he’s picked up track limits penalties in two of the last three races, and the fight with russell in barcelona was not necessary with a 66-point lead. he’s 19. he’ll learn. i’d just prefer he learned before the lead is gone.
mercedes isn’t in trouble exactly. they’re 78 points clear of ferrari in the constructors and they’ve won seven of nine. but they’ve gone from one driver running away with it to two drivers taking points off each other while a ferrari picks up the wins. we’ve seen how that movie goes (hello, mclaren 2025).
the off week was mostly spent on the rumour that verstappen and oscar piastri might swap seats. piastri says he’s been reassured he’s staying at mclaren, so i’m filing that one under silly season.
spa is sunday at 16:00 here in riyadh, with no sprint this time. last year antonelli qualified 18th there and finished 16th from the pit lane, so it’s hardly his favourite place. hamilton’s last win before barcelona was at spa. my prediction: mercedes takes pole again, a ferrari wins anyway, and the lead is under 20 by the time we get to hungary. see you after the race.