‘The job’s not finished’ – Antonelli sets out target after extending championship lead with ‘incredible’ Monaco win

Kimi Antonelli was left to hail an “incredible weekend” after his victory in an eventful Monaco Grand Prix – but the championship leader also set out the goal of maintaining his current level of performance, having conceded that “the job’s not finished”.

After arriving into the weekend with a 43-point lead over Mercedes team mate George Russell, Antonelli’s chances of extending this appeared strong when he secured pole position in Saturday’s Qualifying while Russell wound up in P6.

However, the Italian faced the task of staying focused during what would prove to be a chaotic afternoon around the streets of Monte Carlo, which saw numerous retirements and penalties for his rivals as well as a red flag in the latter stages, to allow for a track inspection following a crash for Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

When the action resumed for the final 10 laps, Antonelli had the other Scuderia car of Lewis Hamilton lined up behind him – but the youngster kept his head and went on to claim his first Monaco win.

“It’s been an incredible weekend, an incredible race,” Antonelli said after stepping out of the car. “It was one of those days where we had incredible pace and it was just coming all so naturally.

“The car was feeling incredible and it was just giving me the confidence to push, so it was a very enjoyable day.”

Despite now holding a lead of 66 points in the standings – ahead of Hamilton, who has now overtaken Russell – Antonelli recognised the importance of continuing to perform at this level, with many rounds still remaining in the championship.

“The job’s not finished – it’s still a long season and we’ve got to keep pushing, keep raising the bar, and the goal is to keep performing like this,” he explained.

“The team have done an incredible job – they’ve given us an incredible car, and I’ve got so much support from the team as well, and from my family. It’s a really good moment so far.”

Antonelli also shared an insight into how he approached the race restart following the stoppage.

“To be fair, I wasn’t super keen on restarting as well, because I didn’t really want to restart,” the 19-year-old said. “But then once the notification came out, I just gathered my emotions, my thoughts and I started to focus again, looked at some data and so on and just tried to refocus on restarting and then trying to get the tyres in the right temperature.

“Once I got away, I knew I was going to make it into P1 in the first corner, and from that point on I just enjoyed the last few laps.”