Mexico City GP: Antonelli crowned F1's youngest champion as Verstappen wins

Kimi Antonelli is Formula 1's youngest-ever world champion after sealing the title in Mexico City on Sunday, closing out a season that has rewritten the record books. Max Verstappen won the race ahead of Lewis Hamilton, but the day belonged to the Italian and to a Mercedes team that took a calculated gamble on him barely two years ago.

Why it matters:

Antonelli's coronation ends the sport's long wait for a generational shift at the very top. He takes a record Sebastian Vettel has held since 2010, and he does it in only his second season — a timeline almost nobody in the paddock considered realistic when Mercedes handed him a race seat as a teenager.

The details:

• Verstappen's victory was hard-earned, holding off Hamilton in a straight fight at the front while the championship picture resolved itself behind them.
• The Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez delivered the noise and colour the moment deserved, with the stadium section louder than at any point over the weekend.
• Mercedes' celebrations ran long into the evening — a payoff for a junior programme that backed Antonelli through every category on the way up.
• The images from Sunday tell the story better than the timing screens: the pit wall, the embrace, the flag.

What's next:

The drivers' title is settled, but the season is not. Races remain on the calendar, and the paddock now turns to a different question — whether Antonelli's emergence marks the beginning of a Mercedes era or one brilliant year in a tighter fight. Verstappen, who has spent the second half of the season finding form, will have plenty to say about the answer.