Antonelli now has a 66-point advantage at the summit of the Drivers’ Championship table after George Russell failed to secure a top-10 finish. He was handed a drive-through penalty after failing to serve an earlier penalty, which took him out of points contention. As a result, he has been surpassed by Hamilton in the overall standings.
It leaves Antonelli with a healthy lead after only six races, but the 19-year-old knows there is a long way to go before he can be crowned champion.
Speaking after the race, he said: “It’s been an incredible weekend, incredible race. It was one of those days where we had so incredible pace and it was just coming all so natural.
“The car was feeling incredible and it just was giving me the confidence to push. So it was a very enjoyable day.
“I mean, 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.
“The team is doing an incredible job. They’ve given us an incredible car and I’ve got so much support from the team as well, from my family. So yeah, it’s a really good moment so far.”
Antonelli admitted that he was worried about the red flag restart with Hamilton right behind him, given how quickly Ferrari have been off the grid this year.
“To be fair, I wasn’t super keen on restarting as well, because I didn’t really want to restart, but then once the notification came out, I just gathered my emotions, my thoughts, and I started to focus again,” he added.
“I 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. And then once I got away, I knew I was going to make it into P1 into the first corner, and then from that point on I just enjoyed the last few laps.”