Kim and Kimi. A catwalk and a cakewalk. One made her name in Keeping Up with Kardashians. The other starred in his one-man episode of Nobody Can Keep Up with the Antonellis.
The first is a reference to Lewis Hamilton’s new girlfriend who was escorted around the pit lane by dark-suited flunkies protecting her delicate skin from the sun streaking down on the Monaco Grand Prix. We shall come back to her and all that hoopla in a minute; it is part of the place’s madcappery.
The second alludes to Kimi Antonelli, whose emerging gifts as a motor-racing driver of extraordinary virtuosity were underlined by a performance so mature you can barely believe we should ask for his birth certificate. He is a man-child of 19 years and nine months.
In winning this 72nd world championship edition of the sport’s most fabled race, he became the youngest driver ever to do so. He beats in the record books the man he twice crushed on the track into second place, namely Ms Kardashian’s chap, who first won here in 2008 aged 23.
In the end, the Italian’s winning margin was ‘merely’ 6.2sec, but that is because of a yellow flag punctuation and an embarrassing red flag caused by the track cracking up. That suspension arrived with 10 laps remaining and lasted for 37 minutes, at Formula One’s most prestigious race, on this exalted ribbon of road.
The interruption left Antonelli with an eight-lap shootout to dominate, and so he did. And thus here was the youngsters’ fifth successive win, the title road opening up before his brown eyes. A quintet on the bounce, incidentally, is as many as Hamilton has ever stacked up in any one purple patch.
Championship leader Kimi Antonelli won the Monaco Grand Prix, his fifth race win on the trot
The race was earlier suspended after tarmac broke up on the famous road circuit
Charles Leclerc was among those to crash out as a result of the shocking broken circuit
And this was not an ordinary victory, it was a masterclass. It was one-sided, it was authoritative, it answered any questions.
Who now thinks that George Russell, his Mercedes team-mate, will likely finish the season as champion? Russell, demoralised over the last few bleak weeks, finished 13th to fall 68 points off the top with six of the 22 rounds completed.
The British driver’s afternoon was one of unexpected errors and mounting horrors. To rub salt in, Hamilton is two points ahead of him.
Antonelli had purred to pole with unerring precision on Saturday and that is a key determinant in a race perennially played out, barring rain, as a procession. He was away cleanly, though helped by the ill-luck that struck Max Verstappen, who started second on the grid for Red Bull, as he conked a few yards after his launch as the lights went out.
Antonelli was into – and more importantly – out of Sainte Devote in front. Hamilton, lining up third, could not live with him in those first few corners that set the tone for his afternoon of the winner’s mastery.
Beau Rivage, Massenet, Casino, Lowes, Portier, Mirabeau, Lowes, Portier – all famous names acting as first-lap staging posts in a story Antonelli was writing in gold.
By the time he arrived at the swimming pool, Hamilton’s Ferrari was out of its depth, treading water. By lap two the Italian led by three seconds. Ciao! By lap 10, five seconds and cruising. He could have done the old Stirling Moss trick and waved to a pretty girl at the hairpin and still dominated.
The die was cast and even though, as Antonelli presumably conserved his tyres, Hamilton never advanced closer than to three seconds adrift. By the time the leading pair had pitted, Antonelli’s lead stood at 14 seconds.
He opened up minimally a half-minute lead by the time on lap 60, Lance Stroll hit the wall at Rascasse. A safety car came out. All were reshod. The running order was Antonelli, Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, just as it had been since Verstappen limped out at the start, the Dutchman’s predicament met with a volley of his second language, Anglo-Saxon.
Then intensifying drama. Leclerc banged off at Rascasse, too. He was hot headed at the time, furious at being called in and double-stacked in the pit lane as he waited for Hamilton to be fitted with new rubber.
‘Why the hell are we pitting?’ exclaimed the Monegasque, carrying hopes of his people and supported on the grid by Pierre Casiraghi, younger son of Prince Albert II.
Then, bang. A few moments later the race was red-flagged as the Rascasse surface, which had been relaid for this year, was inspected and temporary repairs carried out.
The cars returned to the pit lane as this farce played out. Grown men stared at the asphalt as if looking for a lost penny.
Kim Kardashian was at the centre of attention as she showed her support for Lewis Hamilton
Hamilton was not flawless, committing the schoolboy crime of speeding in the pit lane. A five-second penalty was imposed. Russell also whizzed through in the pit lane illegally and then failed to serve his five-second sanction properly, gaining him a further drive-through penalty. Life is not good for George, and it is a long road back for him.
The remedial work done, the cars trotted out for a couple of laps behind the safety car. Antonelli told his team over the radio that the tarmac was still damaged. Nice try, Mr Leader. Nobody was buying that subterfuge and a standing start was invoked.
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Would Antonelli hold Hamilton off the line? He needed once more, in a heightened state of delayed tension, to emerge from Sainte Devote in the lead? He did. Calmly. Unblinkingly. Who could say he did not deserve the champagne as Fratelli d’Italia rang out at the ceremonials?
Behind Kimi and Lewis in third place came Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar.
Kim, the Kardashian, was on parade as the prizes were handed out, in a cream dress and purple-cerise sunglasses as big as safety goggles, complete with side shields. For her Lewis this represented a second successive podium in a serious upturn in his fortunes.
Yes, had harboured hopes of a fourth victory on a track that suited his Ferrari and where he was fastest in practice on Friday. But he had Kim to cushion missing out on the top step as well as the reality that Kimi was beyond reach.
