Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli becomes second youngest driver ever to score in Formula 1

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the 18-year-old Italian rookie that replaced Lewis Hamilton in Mercedes, was one of the stand outs from last Sunday's race in Australia, an incident-packed race where six out of 20 drivers did not finish due to accidents caused by the rain.

Antonelli ended fourth, which made him the second youngest driver ever to score points (18 years and 230 days), only behind Max Verstappen, when he was 17 years and 180 days in 2015. He was already the third youngest driver ever to start a race, also behind Verstappen and Lance Stroll in 2017. An spectacular performance for the young driver, who started on P16 and was nearly denied points by a five-second penalty for an unsafe release from the pits which made him drop to fifth place, that was later overturned after a review request from Mercedes.

Antonelli, who has been driving for Mercedes since 2019 in the Junior Team, said to be "super happy" after the race, despite the "super, super tricky conditions", praising his team guidance to recover from the bad qualifier. Thanks to Antonelli, Mercedes is tied with McLaren at the top of the Constructor's championship, with 27 points. A much better than expected race considering it was his first F1 race, and the incredibly difficult conditions that caused many more experienced drivers to crash...