• 20-year-old clinches title with four races to go

• Verstappen wins race ahead of Hamilton

Kimi Antonelli etched his name into the Formula One record books as world champion and as a deserved and popular winner whose verve and extraordinary skill has been thrilling to watch, turning what many thought might have been an unlikely title tilt into a triumphant march, sealed with tears of joy at the Mexican Grand Prix

In taking his debut F1 title for Mercedes, the 20-year-old Antonelli, with his tousled hair and charming boyish looks, is the youngest driver to claim the sport’s crown and the first Italian to do so since Alberto Ascari won in 1953. It is Mercedes’ first drivers’ championship since Hamilton last won in 2020 and the team’s 10th.

The youngster closed it out unsurprisingly with the cool command the greats of the sport display by taking third place in Mexico City, a race won after no little drama by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, from the ­Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton, who was left fuming with his teammate Charles Leclerc, who finished fourth.

Afterwards Antonelli was clearly moved and said it was a moment that would live for ever but had left him almost speechless. His race engineer, Peter Bonnington, spoke perhaps for everyone who has watched the Italian this season, noting that this was just the beginning for Antonelli.

“It is a very special day, a young man has broken the record for the youngest world champion,” he said. “It is the first of many I reckon, I am just super happy for him, stoked.”

On any other day this feisty affair in Mexico City, with Verstappen superb and a dramatic Ferrari inter-driver spat to savour, would have been ­considered quite an entertaining affair but for all that it really belonged to Antonelli.

He brought what has been a hugely successful campaign to a close as the sport’s 36th world champion at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in only his second season in F1 and with four meetings still to go. Sebastian Vettel was the previous youngest winner of the drivers’ championship, aged 23 in 2010, when Antonelli was just four years old.

The Italian has been on top for almost the entire season, having taken the lead after the third round in Japan. With the Mercedes proving to be the class of the field in the opening half of the year under the new regulations, Antonelli made the most of it and established a dominant lead. He won five of the first six races, outracing his teammate George ­Russell, who had been the pre-season favourite.

Antonelli went on to take nine wins in a season where he failed to score points only twice, on both occasions because of mechanical failures. Even as Mercedes were pushed by Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull, Antonelli retained a stranglehold on his lead, including sealing a win from 19th on the grid at his home grand prix at Monza.

Russell and Hamilton were his nearest contenders but neither was able to significantly narrow the gap. They had to win in Mexico to keep the title alive but Antonelli’s third place would have clinched it even had they done so.

Antonelli did exactly what was required of him here, kept his cool and did not put a foot wrong in a race that was run at a frenetic pace. Leclerc made a great start and tried to pass Hamilton for the lead at turn four took but cut the corner to do so.

He did not give the place back and was investigated, with Hamilton ­furious his teammate had cost them a one-two in the race and let Verstappen ultimately into the lead. The stewards found Leclerc had gained an advantage in leaving the track and he was given a five-second penalty to take during his pit stop.

It was a decision which left ­Hamilton unhappy. “The problem is he’s got clean air and doesn’t have to manage like the rest of us. He should just give the place back,” he said. “The stewards are basically handing Charles this win.”

Later when the race was stopped he made his displeasure clear again. “We’ve got big problems. Big, big problems,” he said. A lively debrief at Ferrari is in store.

A red flag was called after Valtteri Bottas crashed out with a big impact at turn one. It prompted a restart from which a feisty Hamilton moved up to second and Antonelli into third, typically not willing to quietly do the minimum to take the title. It allowed him to seal glory with a podium place, where the two greats hoisted the kid on to their shoulders.

The victory might be something of cold comfort to Verstappen given Antonelli secured the title, but ­comfort it will be to the Dutch driver and his team who will be buoyed by what was a hugely impressive run from fifth on the grid as they look to enter next season strongly. It has set up the mouthwatering prospect of Verstappen and Antonelli and ­hopefully Hamilton competing consistently at the front in 2027.

The title for Antonelli represents a vindication of the enormous faith Mercedes had placed in the boy from Bologna, whom the team brought into their young driver program when he was 12. He was promoted to take Hamilton’s place last season, which proved a difficult year for the rookie but since then he has adapted to competing at the very sharp end with alacrity and great skill.

He went into the race in Mexico needing only ninth place or better and despite only qualifying in fourth delivered a nerveless drive ­indicative of the form he has shown across the year. A moment to remember but surely not the last for this ­fascinating, precocious talent.