World champion Antonelli claims DHL Fastest Lap, but victory in Brazil proves elusive

Kimi Antonelli headed to Brazil as the newly crowned world champion and was well fancied to take pole position at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace but only managed to secure second place on the grid in the rain-hit qualifying session.

Going into Turn 1 in the race, Antonelli had already seized the lead from Lando Norris and had built up a six-second cushion by the first round of pit stops. However, after changing his intermediate tires for softs, he suddenly experienced balance issues and spun in Turn 1, causing him to drop back down into fourth place.

Antonelli pitted for new soft tires again after 35 laps and, while endeavoring to fight his way back up the field from P5, set the DHL Fastest Lap with a time of 1:12.689 minutes on lap 55. Rain began to fall again towards the end of the race, forcing him to come back in for a third time. He almost piled into Pierre Gasly in a pit lane which was busy with traffic, and as a result, was later handed a five-second penalty for an unsafe release.

Still, his fifth-place finish and George Russell's fourth were enough to secure the Constructors' World Championship for Mercedes. He told us after the event: "I am extremely disappointed with the race, but I am going to put it aside. Because today is a great day for the team and they all deserve it. I am very happy for them and very grateful to be part of this group, because they helped me achieve this dream of mine."