I gave myself a heart attack at the end

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli was left “speechless” as he broke down in tears after claiming his maiden Formula 1 win at the Chinese Grand Prix, and recounted a hair-raising off-track excursion towards the end of the race.

Fresh from being F1’s youngest-ever grand prix polesitter, Antonelli emerged victorious from a long battle between Mercedes and Ferrari at the Shanghai International Circuit, reclaiming his lead after an early challenge from the fast-starting Ferraris.

Mercedes’ true pace advantage emerged towards the latter half of the race on worn tyres and Antonelli was able to cruise to a win while team-mate Russell first had to dispatch Ferrari drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

Antonelli brought his car home five seconds ahead of Russell to claim his maiden grand prix win and was overcome with emotion after the finish.

“I’m speechless. I’m about to cry to be honest but thank you so much to my team because they helped me to achieve this dream,” the 19-year-old said before breaking down in tears. “I’m super happy. I said yesterday I really wanted to bring Italy back on top and we did today.”

Antonelli survived a late scare when he locked his tyres at the hairpin and went straight on, costing him several seconds on Russell. The Italian had been pushing on old tyres before that, with his lock-up a reminder to dial things down and just bring the car home, as his race engineer suggested.

“I gave myself a little bit of a heart attack towards the end with a flat spot,” Antonelli acknowledged. “But it was a good race. It was not an easy start and probably I covered a bit too much on the inside and gave too much room to the Ferrari. But at the end the pace was good, and we managed to bring it home.

“I’m looking forward to the rest of the season now. I always focus race by race and then we’ll see where we end up at the end of the year.”

Russell, who now leads Antonelli by four points in the drivers’ championship, said he was pleased to share the moment with his young team-mate and with Antonelli’s predecessor Hamilton, who claimed his first Ferrari grand prix podium in third.

“Huge congratulations to Kimi, because it’s always very special to win your first race and obviously, he’s been driving really amazing this year and this weekend, especially,” Russel said. “So, I’m pleased to be standing on the podium with him and with this guy as well [points to Hamilton].

“It was a tough battle. Obviously, we both had really bad starts again and the Ferraris shot past but at the end of the day getting the one-two again is all we could ask for.”

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– The Autosport.com Team