Kimi Antonelli names 'scary' moment he thought 'he lost his chance' to win historic Italian GP

Kimi Antonelli has named the "scary" moment he thought he lost his chance to win the Italian Grand Prix - and take a giant step towards winning the world championship title. 

Antonelli passed George Russell on Lap 50 of 53 to win by 3.8s, becoming the first driver to win from 19th on the grid since Bill Vukovich at the 1954 Indianapolis 500. 

He is the first Italian to win his home grand prix since Ludovico Scarfiotti for Ferrari in 1966, and now leads the drivers' standings by 66 points from Russell, whom Antonelli defeated in combat. 

On Lap 49, Antonelli was forced wide at Turn 2 into the gravel but recovered to sweep past Russell and take the seventh win of his career, and the 50th overall for an Italian driver. 

Reflecting, the 20-year-old, recalled the scare of going off as the track began to break up.

"Unbelievable, unbelievable. I'm so happy, and I could have never imagined to to be here today," he said. 

"But we managed to pull it off, and I'm really, really happy. 

"It was quite scary there in the moment because the tarmac was breaking up, but I still thought I could do the corner. But once I went over a bit of gravel as well, I went straight, and I was like, maybe I've lost my chance. 

"But then, luckily, we still had the pace and managed to bring it home.

"After the second restart, I was up there, and I knew I could have had a shot for the win. So yeah, definitely I believed in it, especially when I was behind George. 

"But it was really difficult to break away, we pitted, and he stayed out, and he struggled a bit with his tyres at the end, while with fresher tyres, I was able to increase the pace and managed to win."