F1 Q&A: Kimi Antonelli, George Russell and Charles Leclerc feature

Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli climbed from 19th on the grid to win the Italian Grand Prix - his home race - in one of the great Formula 1 drives.

Antonelli extended his lead at the top of the drivers' standings to 66 points over team-mate George Russell.

Max Verstappen, in the Red Bull, finished third to complete the podium at Monza.

BBC Sport F1 correspondent Andrew Benson answers your latest questions before round 14 of the 2026 season in Madrid, Spain.

Antonelli 'walks over water' for win that will go down in F1 folklore

Why wasn't George Russell given the opportunity by Mercedes to pit under the virtual safety car in the Italian Grand Prix? I know he had the hard tyres on, but as the lead driver on track should he not have been at least given the choice? - Tom

In hindsight, it would be easy to think there would be some controversy around the decisions that were taken when the virtual safety car was called mid-race at the Italian Grand Prix.

At the time, George Russell was leading the race on the hard tyre and Kimi Antonelli was second on the medium, a few laps after the Mercedes drivers had been advised to call off their 'yo-yo' scrapping to allow them to optimise their pace and build a gap to Max Verstappen's Red Bull.

Without a VSC, the question was whether the mediums on Antonelli's car would last to the end - probably not - and what Mercedes would do about that.

With or without the VSC, the race result was up in the air.

The VSC changed the complexion of the race, but Russell, who had fitted hards at the red flag with the express intention of going to the end, said he had given no thought to changing tyres at the time.

"I didn't," he said. "I actually thought the guys behind me were going to stay out as well. But I'm sure the team were quite nervous on the pit wall watching our battle and were probably quite happy to send us on different strategies.

"And of course, when we had Max in the mix as well, from a team perspective, you're covering off both scenarios.

"If either of us were to pit, it was going to be Kimi. And that's why I was just a little bit annoyed with the timing of that VSC because I think it would have been tough for those guys on the medium to have competed with anybody on the hard tyre. But it takes nothing away from Kimi's drive."

At the time, Mercedes' strategy computers were saying staying out was the best option.

Team principal Toto Wolff said: "We didn't know what was the better strategy. At that stage, the system said that the one-stop comes out ahead. That two-stop was coming close to the end, but didn't catch it. That's what the software said."

All of which goes to underline the main takeaway - the sublime quality of Antonelli's drive.

He made remarkable progress up through the field from 19th on the grid, wasting no time in picking off cars in front, minimising any loss from overtaking to his overall race time.

He made this look easy, but as many other drivers proved at Monza on Sunday, overtaking another car of similar performance and immediately pulling away was anything but.

This was a performance for the ages - like Lewis Hamilton in Brazil in 2021, Max Verstappen in Brazil in 2024 or 2025, or Fernando Alonso in Valencia in 2012.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, who knows a thing or two about this sort of performance having worked with Michael Schumacher and Alonso, said: "While he had a very competitive car, we have to say that he beat a team-mate starting second on the grid.

"It's a very special day, very important for his championship. But for his career and for the fans, motorsport in general, this will be an iconic day. This will be remembered in the years to come."

Is Charles Leclerc's tendency to crash out of races starting to become a problem both for him and Ferrari? - Nathan

Charles Leclerc certainly did not have his best day in Monza on Sunday.

He was arguably too aggressive with Lewis Hamilton at the first chicane on the first lap, forcing his team-mate into the gravel and dropping him to 10th, and crashed out a lap later.

By then, he had also been passed by Max Verstappen, and his accident at Parabolica seemed to be influenced by the fact he was slightly wide into, through and out of the corner because he was defending an attack from McLaren's Oscar Piastri, although Leclerc himself said he thought that was not the cause of his crash.

"I wouldn't say that this is the issue," he said. "From lap one to lap two, I had a bit of a difference in power delivery. We'll look into it, but I don't want to comment too much before checking the data and confirming it 100%."

Having said that, does the allegation that Leclerc has a "tendency to crash out of races" stand up?

He has done it twice so far this year - the previous time was in Monaco, when he lost control at a restart on the broken track surface at Anthony Noghes.

But, unless I've missed something, you have to go back nearly three years to the one before that, when he retired with car damage after an incident-packed race at Zandvoort in 2023.

In that period, for comparison, Hamilton has done the same thing four times - Brazil and Netherlands last year, Austin in 2024 and Qatar in 2023.

Ferrari clearly have some things to sort out, however, in terms of their operations and general approach.

Hamilton is not happy about the way the team have effectively disregarded his - albeit slim - title hopes this year in favour of driver equality, and he said after dropping more points to Antonelli on Sunday that it was "far too late for those decisions to come".

The incident between Leclerc and Hamilton on lap one took place in the context of Hamilton saying after qualifying they had to "work as a team to try and topple" Mercedes.

Leclerc said of the first-corner incident: "I don't really know who is forcing that narrative that we are one against the other. I mean, honestly, Zandvoort there was way too many talks already.

"Here it's true, though, that we went too far. Lewis in Turn One, then Turn Two, I tried to do the tightest corner possible, but that was just not enough and doing it here is not good."

Hamilton was not impressed by the suggestion he had done anything wrong at Turn One.

When those remarks were put to Hamilton, he said: "He said what? I was ahead in Turn Two. By the ethics, I was ahead. There was no 'we' in it."

He added: "I don't race dirty. I've always raced clean and fairly and always left space."

Team boss Frederic Vasseur, who said he would talk to the drivers before discussing this in the media, has some smoothing out to do before this weekend's race in Madrid.

Listen - Italian GP Review: History at Monza!

Aston Martin have had their major upgrades but were right at the back of the grid again in Monza. Have the upgrades just failed? - Colin

Aston Martin had a major car upgrade in Hungary two races ago, and a "spec two" Honda engine at the race before Italy in Zandvoort, on either side of the summer break.

There is no question the car upgrade worked. What was effectively an all-new car, apart from the rear suspension and gearbox, cut lap times by about two seconds.

Fernando Alonso made it into the second part of qualifying for the first time all year in Hungary, and drove an outstanding race to finish ninth on merit in the Netherlands, on a one-stop strategy, holding at arm's length the faster Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Racing Bull of Yuki Tsunoda in the final stint.

More upgrades are expected, in the form of a weight reduction around the gearbox, for either Madrid this weekend or Azerbaijan.

The Honda engine upgrade that made its debut in Zandvoort has been less impressive, which is why Aston Martin found themselves at the back again on the power-sensitive Monza track.

Trackside general manager and chief engineer Shintaro Orihara says Honda "observed a step forward in terms of performance from our metrics".

But if there has been one, it is small. Drivability of the spec two in Zandvoort was noticeably worse, too, although it had made a step forward in Italy.

The Aston Martin car seems to be a midfield-level chassis now, somewhere around the borderline of getting into the final part of qualifying, depending on circuit layout, if it had a competitive engine.

And on the chassis side, the team have a sense of direction that gives them confidence they can make another step next season.

With Honda, which still has comfortably the worst engine in F1, the upgrade has been less reassuring.

What is the new Madring circuit in Spain like in terms of power compared to all the previously visited circuits? Who is it expected to suit most of all? - Andrew

The Madrid circuit which makes its debut this weekend has been built from scratch.

The circuit layout has lots of corners, and it is expected to have a low power sensitivity, around the level of Zandvoort.

Medium-speed corners predominate. And overtaking is expected to be difficult - again, like Zandvoort, or even Hungary.

Given Lando Norris took dominant wins in the Netherlands and Hungary, some teams believe McLaren might be favourites heading into this weekend, but McLaren themselves are not so sure.

Hungary and Zandvoort have long-duration corners, where the McLaren excels. But the Madring corners are generally short duration, the exception being the long, banked Monumental, which is expected to be flat out.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said after the race in Monza on Sunday: "We still think that tracks like Baku and Madrid, where you have to be very precise with the trajectory, short corners, maybe they don't play to the best of our car.

"Yet, we have to say that in Zandvoort and Hungary we were in position to win races and here, while we were not, we know that it's a special race.

"Drag will be less important in Madrid. There is a much higher density of corners. We will definitely give it a go."

New tracks always throw up surprises. So, in short, while one can speculate about car and circuit characteristics all one wants, no one will actually know until qualifying on Saturday.

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