MADRID (AP) — By now, even Kimi Antonelli's closest rival is conceding that the race for the Formula 1 title is pretty much over.
Antonelli won his eighth race of the season — and second in a row — at Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix, extending his championship lead to 81 points with nine races remaining.
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Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy crosses the finish line to win the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix race in Madrid, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy celebrates on the podium after winning the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix race in Madrid, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain, right, and Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy steer their cars during the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix race in Madrid, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy celebrates with his team after winning the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix race in Madrid, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy celebrates on the podium after winning the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix race in Madrid, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
The 20-year-old Italian, the youngest ever to lead the F1 championship, doesn't want to get too far ahead of himself, though.
“It’s great, but we’ve just got to keep pushing, keep delivering the results and, you know, just trying to do the best job I can whenever I go on track,” he said. “Of course, yes, I have a big lead, but you never know what can happen. So just need to be ready for anything and keep maximizing every opportunity I get, and then we’ll see where we end up at the end of the year.”
His Mercedes teammate, George Russell, hinted he already knows the outcome.
“Realistically, I’m not in the fight for the drivers’ (championship), and that just allows me to focus race by race and try to get some good results.”
Lewis Hamilton, third in the championship, dropped 101 points behind Antonelli after not finishing on Sunday because of a brake failure.
Russell was fifth on Sunday. He had already said earlier in the weekend that Antonelli “has done a better job” than him this season and “deserves to be leading” the championship.
Antonelli doesn't like the rhetoric that the title race is over and that he can start taking a more conservative approach.
“That’s exactly what I don’t want to do,” he said. “I want to keep pushing race by race, keep delivering and keep enjoying all the way, and trying to do my best every race. And then we’ll see where we end up.”
Antonelli won Sunday ahead of former champions Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. Both rivals praised his performance this season and weighed in on how he may possibly manage his emotions and the pressure of having a big points lead.
“Kimi just needs to do what he’s doing,” Verstappen said. “I mean, it’s fantastic, so it’s working really well. He should not stress about it too much, which I don’t think he is. He’s just delivering, he’s confident, he’s getting more and more experience. He’s still young, he’s still very early in his career, but he’s flying and it’s just working.”
Verstappen said Antonelli “shouldn’t overcomplicate things” and “he’s not doing that.”
“He has a lot of good people around him that know what he needs. So, it’s all working well,” the four-time world champion from Red Bull said.
Norris, who won his first title last year with McLaren, said Antonelli has “been impressive since the first race this year.”
“You know, he’s beating a much more experienced teammate, and a decent teammate, so I don’t want to give him any advice because he’s doing a scarily good job,” Norris said. “It’s cool to see someone so young doing such an incredible job and more than likely go on and win the championship. He’s just not driving like it’s his second year in F1, that’s for sure.”
Antonelli, who is looking to become the youngest F1 champion, credited the support of the team and his family.
“I’m lucky to have really good people around me,” he said. “I have an incredible team that supports me, great family. Especially my dad is the one that keeps me on the ground. You know, especially when he sees that, you know, I might lose a little bit the way.
“On my side, as I said many times, I just try to do my best every race, trying to really drive as fast as I can whenever I go in the car,” Antonelli added. “And then we’ll see where we end up at the end of the year. But definitely I don’t want to overcomplicate things or, you know, just drive worrying about championship or result. Just driving, doing my best.”
See AP’s full auto racing coverage here
Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy crosses the finish line to win the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix race in Madrid, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy celebrates on the podium after winning the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix race in Madrid, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain, right, and Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy steer their cars during the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix race in Madrid, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy celebrates with his team after winning the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix race in Madrid, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy celebrates on the podium after winning the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix race in Madrid, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have seized the strategic islands of Greater and Lesser Hanish in the southern Red Sea, bolstering the Iranian-backed rebels' ability to control a key maritime shipping route.
Meanwhile, Iran says Saudi Arabia was behind Oman’s decision to postpone a meeting bringing together Iran with other regional countries to discuss the Strait of Hormuz.
In Iraq, two people died and more than 100 others were injured after an ammonia gas leak at a fertilizer plant in the country’s south.
Here’s a look at the latest news in the Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.
Houthi officials said Monday they had taken over the two islands just as Saudi-backed government forces tried to claw back territory from the rebels' swift advances around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a crucial shipping alternative to the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz — through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas transits in peacetime — in the opening days of the war. The Saudis have since used Bab el-Mandeb Strait that leads out of the Red Sea for crude oil exports.
The Houthis’ newest takeover, following the seizure of the Red Sea port of Mokha and a strategic island last week, puts more pressure on Saudi shipments and, in turn, global oil supplies and prices.
This could give Iran additional leverage in its war with the United States.
China, a major Middle East oil importer, on Monday called Houthi attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure “unacceptable” and said it was “deeply concerned” about further escalations by the rebels against Saudi Arabia.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said “attacks on civilian infrastructure that is important to people’s livelihoods are unacceptable.”
He called on all sides to exercise restraint and resolve disputes through dialogue.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Monday Saudi Arabia had “demanded" that a meeting bringing together Iran with other regional countries to discuss the Strait of Hormuz be scrapped “for the time being.”
Baghaei called the meeting, which was to be hosted by Oman, a “proper opportunity” to restore security in the region.
The spokesman said an agreement between Iran and Oman on the Strait of Hormuz has been finalized and it will be announced later.
Saudi Arabia had submitted amendments to the agreement, citing concerns it could have lasting implications for the Strait of Hormuz, negatively impacting other Gulf Cooperation Council countries, according to a Gulf official familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Iran denounced on Monday Austria’s refusal to issue visas to the Iranian nuclear chief and other delegation members for the International Atomic Energy Agency’s General Conference in Vienna, calling the decision “completely unjustified.”
Esmail Baghaei, Iran's Foreign ministry spokesman, said Tehran summoned the Austrian chargé d’affaires, saying Austria was obligated as the host country to issue the visas.
Baghaei accused Western countries of denying Iran an opportunity to defend itself and blamed the U.S. for pressuring Austria to deny the visas.
The refusal is part of U.N. sanctions on Iran, reinstated last year, that include a travel ban on Iranian officials.
Last week, the U.N. atomic watchdog’s board reported Iran to the U.N. Security Council for the first time in 20 years, citing failure to cooperate in a long-running investigation into uranium traces detected by inspectors at undeclared sites.
The B’Tselem human rights group said Monday Israel is carrying out a systematic and accelerated project aimed at “dismantling the foundations of Palestinian existence” in the occupied West Bank.
The group made the accusation in a new report that claims Israeli actions against Palestinians in the West Bank by settlers and the military are designed to undermine Palestinian collective life “while entrenching a permanent system of Jewish supremacy” across the territory.
Settler violence in the West Bank has surged under the ultranationalist government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Rights groups say the military frequently turns a blind eye to the violence, and that when it intervenes it often focuses on protecting the settlers.
The B’Tselem report also claims that Israeli actions rely heavily on open cooperation between state authorities and armed settlers who attack Palestinian communities using weapons and vehicles supplied by the state while the military either fails to prevent the violence or, in some cases, participates in it.
The report adds that as of July, Israel had taken control of more than 264,402 acres – nearly a fifth of the West Bank — through “armed settler militias.”
Most of the international community views settlements as illegal.
Iraq’s health ministry said Monday an ammonia gas leak at a fertilizer plant in the southern province of Basra killed two people and injured 114 others.
Health Ministry spokesman Saif al-Badr said most of the injuries were minor, but 21 people remain hospitalized.
This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.
A man walks in front of a mural symbolising restrictions on shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, one of the world's key shipping lanes, in Sanaa, Yemen, Monday, Sept. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
People chat at a coffee shop in Sanaa, Yemen, Monday, Sept. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
Displaced Yemenis, from Al Khawkhah city, 400 kilometers (249 miles) south west of Sanaa, wait to enter a temporary shelter in Aden, Yemen, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)
Yemeni civilians celebrate while riding in the back of a pickup truck in the Bani Matar district, Yemen, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, as they follow a convoy carrying Houthi prisoners freed in Mokha on its way to Sanaa following the Houthi takeover of the southern Red Sea port city. (AP Photo/STR)
