Kimi Antonelli became the youngest-ever Formula 1 world champion in history at the Mexico City Grand Prix, but it wasn’t all fun and games for him in the lead-up to Sunday’s race.

The 20-year-old clinched his first F1 title with a P3 finish in the Mexican capital, joining Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton on the podium in what can only be described as a fitting way for such a generational talent to celebrate world domination for the very first time.

Antonelli entered the 19th round of the season needing just two points in order to ensure he would be leaving Mexico City as the newly-crowned world champion, and while that may seem like an easy feat from the outside, he still had to make sure he was at the top of his game to get the job done.

Premature congratulatory messages infuriated Kimi Antonelli at the Mexico City Grand Prix

During his in-demand post-race comments to the press following the podium proceedings, the Mercedes star detailed how his clinching of the title with rounds to spare has lifted a weight from his young shoulders.

In an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, he was asked to comment on how he will approach the final four rounds of racing now that he doesn’t have a title to fight for.

“I couldn’t take it anymore; the weekend here in Mexico was a nightmare in that regard.” 

Naturally, Antonelli was then asked why it had been such a nightmare, to which he said: “Everyone was talking to me as if I’d already won the title. One person in the paddock even congratulated me on the win, and I got angry.

“I was more tense than usual, even before the race started. In fact, I practically left a door as big as a house open for Max at the start. In retrospect, I say to myself, ‘Damn, if I hadn’t done that, maybe I would have won.’ But that’s okay; I won something more important in Mexico.”

Antonelli wasn’t the only driver who lost a bit of his cool inside the F1 paddock last weekend – Isack Hadjar was also involved in a heated moment with a handsy fan on his way to the Red Bull garages for FP1.

A video posted to social media saw the Frenchman pushing a fan away from him as they tried to get a selfie with him without asking permission, which culminated in Hadjar being summoned to the stewards for a telling off.

A formal warning was also handed to the Red Bull driver, who took the chequered flag in P9 after some early contact with Mercedes’ George Russell.