Kimi Antonelli handed Lewis Hamilton example in 'generational talent' debate

Kimi Antonelli has been given a Lewis Hamilton example as to why he is not yet a "generational talent" in F1.

Antonelli recovered from 19th on the grid to remarkably win the Italian Grand Prix, sending his home fans into euphoria.

It resulted in incredible and emotional scenes during the podium celebrations, with the victory being seen as a significant step towards becoming F1 champion this year.

Antonelli then followed that up a week later with a win in the Spanish Grand Prix. Going into the Azerbaijan GP, which is being run on Saturday, the 20-year-old leads Mercedes team-mate George Russell by 81 points.

Antonelli has already been described as a generational talent by some, yet World Endurance Championship racer Alex Lynn, a Le Mans winner in the GTE Pro class, and who has also won races in Formula E and IMSA, feels such a description comes too soon in the young Italian's career. 

While Lynn believes the Mercedes driver's talent cannot be doubted, he has to achieve more before he can be considered one of the greats, highlighting seven-time F1 champion Hamilton as an example.

Lynn pointed out how Hamilton has recovered from the back of the grid to win on multiple occasions, with Antonelli also needing more than one world title in his eyes.

Discussing whether any question marks over Antonelli's ability are now gone, speaking to the BBC's Chequered Flag podcast, Lynn said: "I don't think there are any question marks. 

"I think generational talent... I think if you asked him, 'Do you believe you're one?' I'm sure he'd go, 'No, I've got a long way to go'.

"I would probably sit here and agree that maybe not a long way, but to be a generational talent, you need to be a multiple world champion, doing drives like that regularly every season, where you're like, 'That was incredible'. 

"How many times do we see Lewis Hamilton just pull something insane out of the bag? And it just becomes part of the course that just happens. I think he would even say himself, 'No, I've got a bit to go to be labelled with that personally.'"