MOTOR RACING: Antonelli rebounds at track of last year's setback

The Belgian Grand Prix was one of Kimi Antonelli's worst Formula One weekends as a rookie last year but the 19-year-old Italian was celebrating on Sunday.

The championship leader arrived in the Ardennes this time after failing to score in two of the past three races and with his advantage slashed from 66 points to 25 and Mercedes teammate George Russell poised to make further inroads.

On Sunday, a day after he secured pole position on his father Marco's birthday, Antonelli got what he wanted with a sixth win in 10 races to go 45 points clear of Ferrari's seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.

The threat from Russell disappeared on the opening lap when the Briton collided with Hamilton, spun off and beached his car in the gravel.

"Last year here, I probably reached the bottom," said Antonelli, who was doused in more champagne by his teammates after the podium celebration.

"It was a very difficult weekend for me mentally. But this year was definitely a lot better. If you had asked me last year at this moment, I probably would have said no," he added when asked if he could have imagined the turnaround.

MINDSET AND ATTITUDE A KEY DIFFERENCE

Antonelli was still learning the ropes in 2025, expected to make plenty of mistakes. That was certainly the case in what was then a sprint weekend with the main race run in wet conditions.

The Italian lined up last for the sprint, finishing 17th, and qualified 18th of 20 for the main race, starting from the pitlane and ending up 16th. He had suffered four retirements in the previous six races, scoring only once with a third place in Canada.

The change this year -- with five wins in a row -- has surprised even his Mercedes team, and team boss Toto Wolff said much of that came down to mentality.

"As expected, he knew the environment, he knew the pressures, he knew the demands of the team on the technical side, on the marketing side, knowing the tracks where we would go racing," he said of the second season.

"What was not expected is the serenity and structure he brought into his game."

Wolff said Antonelli would show the same emotion in the debrief whether the session had gone well or badly.

"It is absolutely transactional," explained the Austrian. "'What is the problem? How do we solve it? How do we move on?'. And that is new."

Wolff said Antonelli was often the one saying to the team 'this is a mechanical sport, these things can happen' when things went against him.

"I think that is very, very impressive to see. This mindset and this attitude is probably one of the main drivers that has allowed his talent to shine so early in his career".

-Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Pritha Sarkar/Reuters