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Former Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya believes championship leader Kimi Antonelli is operating entirely within his "comfort zone", questioning who can realistically challenge the Mercedes teenager following his commanding Belgian Grand Prix win.
Antonelli secured his sixth career win at Spa-Francorchamps, fending off Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. The victory has given the Italian a 45-point lead over second-placed Lewis Hamilton in the drivers' championship and a 50-point advantage over his Mercedes team-mate George Russell in third.
Speaking on the F1 TV post-race broadcast, Montoya discussed Antonelli's ongoing dominant campaign.
"He's on it, but he has so much control," Montoya said. "He has so much speed that he's within his comfort zone. He doesn't need to get out of his comfort zone to get the lap time. And who's going to stop him? I don't know."
After winning five consecutive grands prix in China, Japan, Miami, Canada and Monaco, Antonelli retired from the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, finished third in Austria and 15th in Britain.
"He had everything going against him the last few weeks, even being the fastest guy every week," Montoya added. "And again, top points, on pole, dominated all weekend.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Andrej Isakovic / AFP via Getty Images
"We need to get to a weekend where we go, 'Oh, he's finally struggling,' but it doesn't seem that we're going to find one. We said high grip, low grip, street course, everything, and he's always there."
Fellow F1 TV pundit Alex Brundle echoed Montoya's sentiments, noting: "The truly impressive thing for me is actually once you've made the overtake, and Antonelli demonstrated his understanding of these cars. We saw how powerful Overtake [Mode] is when you have it over a number of laps. So Charles Leclerc did very well to stay within that system of Antonelli at the front.
"But still, Antonelli could grind out enough of an advantage to basically take himself out of that system."
He added: "The management of the race from Antonelli when he's racing wheel-to-wheel like that was really brilliant."
The Hungarian Grand Prix, which takes place from 24-26 July, is the final round before the summer break.
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