- Antonelli survived nightmare start in Japan GP to claim second consecutive victory.
- A 50G mid-race crash triggered a Safety Car that changed the entire race.
- Piastri and Leclerc complete the podium as Antonelli rewrites F1 record books.
Kimi Antonelli made Formula 1 history at Suzuka on Sunday. The 19-year-old Mercedes driver won the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest multiple grand prix winner in the sport’s history, surpassing a record previously held by Max Verstappen.
It was his second consecutive victory of the 2026 season, and it arrived despite a start so bad it nearly cost him the race entirely.
Oscar Piastri finished second on his first race start of the season for McLaren, with Charles Leclerc third after holding off a persistent George Russell charge over the closing laps for Ferrari.
As it happened in the Japanese GP
The build-up to lights out looked straightforward enough for Mercedes. Antonelli had put in a commanding pole lap of 1:28.778, nearly three tenths of a second clear of Russell in second. Piastri and Leclerc lined up third and fourth.
Verstappen, four-time winner of the Japanese Grand Prix between 2022 and 2025, was already out of the picture, starting 11th after a Q2 exit that left him “beyond frustrated.”
Then the lights went out, and Antonelli’s afternoon nearly fell apart.
He lost grip off the line and dropped to sixth as the field streamed past him. Piastri pulled wide and took the lead at Turn 1. Leclerc slotted into second. Norris also gained ground in the scramble.
Russell recovered quickly from his own sluggish start, picking off Norris for third on lap three and then Leclerc for second on lap four, using the Mercedes power advantage on the straights.
Antonelli, for his part, kept his head down and worked his way forward one car at a time. He cleared Hamilton on the first lap, then hunted down Norris before passing him on lap 12 into the chicane, the exact same move Russell had used on Piastri earlier.
With Leclerc ahead acting as a natural barrier, the three of them ran close together through the middle portion of the first stint while Piastri and Russell traded laps at the front.
Tyre wear arrived sooner than most teams had planned for, despite Suzuka’s recently resurfaced asphalt. Piastri was managing a blistering front-left and pitted at the end of lap 19 for hard tyres, rejoining in sixth.
Leclerc came in a lap later. Russell led briefly before pitting on lap 22, emerging just ahead of Verstappen.
Then everything changed.
Surprised by the closing speed of Franco Colapinto’s Alpine at Spoon corner, Oliver Bearman swerved to avoid contact, lost control on the grass and hit the barriers at 50G.
The Safety Car came out immediately. Haas confirmed Bearman was alert and communicating, and an X-ray later showed no fractures, though he suffered a knee contusion from striking the monocoque.
The timing of that Safety Car completely changed the race. Antonelli and Hamilton, the only two front-runners yet to pit, came in together at the end of lap 22. They rejoined in first and fourth, respectively, having effectively received a free stop.
Russell, who had pitted one lap earlier under green flag conditions, was left to absorb the blow, slotting back to third. Piastri held second throughout the shuffle.
When the Safety Car withdrew at the end of lap 27, Antonelli was immediately clear of Piastri. Hamilton, on the freshest tyres of anyone near the front, made a strong restart and passed Russell down the main straight to move into third.
Leclerc then pushed back, using his battery deployment to get alongside Hamilton and eventually pass him around the outside of Turn 1 in one of the more committed moves of the afternoon.
Russell, stuck in fourth and under pressure, appeared to slow briefly around lap 38, possibly a power deployment issue, before recovering his pace.
He made his move on Leclerc into the chicane at the start of lap 51, only for the Ferrari driver to close him down on the main straight and reclaim the position around the outside of Turn 1. Leclerc refused to give up third without a real fight.
Further back, Hamilton and Norris spent much of the race trading fifth place. Hamilton locked up at the chicane on lap 44 and ran over the apex, drawing an immediate complaint from Norris on the radio. The stewards found no case to answer.
Norris eventually pulled clear in the penultimate lap, timing his battery deployment well enough to build a gap. Gasly held off Verstappen for seventh over the closing stages, with the Red Bull driver describing his car as feeling like he was “driving without power steering” all afternoon.
Lawson and Ocon rounded out the top ten. Lance Stroll retired on lap 29 with a suspected water pressure issue, the only other retirement alongside Bearman.
Out front, Antonelli never looked back. He spent the second stint setting fastest laps and pulling away, crossing the line 14.4 seconds ahead of Piastri.
His race engineer, Pete Bonnington, summed it up plainly on the radio: “We definitely dodged a bullet today.” Actor Jack Black waved the chequered flag as Antonelli swept past his mechanics to complete the win.
Reactions from the top three drivers
Antonelli did not try to dress up what had happened. In parc fermé, he was honest about both the luck that came his way and the pace that made the most of it.
“It feels pretty good!” he said. “It is still early to think about the Championship, but we are in a good way. A terrible start, I need to check what happened, but the Safety Car helped.”
He acknowledged it is a problem he needs to fix, adding: “I have a few weeks, so I can practice some clutch drops, as it has been a weakness this year.”
But he was equally clear about what he showed once he had clean air. “We were lucky with the Safety Car, but on the hard the pace was incredible. Definitely made my life a lot easier!”
Piastri, making his first race start of 2026 after missing the opening two rounds, gave little away emotionally. But one line pointed to a genuine frustration with how the race played out.
“Would have been really interesting to see what would have happened without the Safety Car,” he said. “A shame to not see what would have happened. But a massive thanks to the team, we did a good job executing with what we have.”
Leclerc, as usual, gave a direct assessment of his afternoon. He spent the second half of the race managing his hard tyres while Russell pushed hard behind him, and he admitted the Safety Car had put him on the back foot from the start.
“With the Safety Car we got unlucky, so I was on the back foot, and I just had to bring the tyres to the end, but the feeling was not that bad,” he said. “It was a fun race, just not enough time to get Oscar.”
| Pos | Driver | Gap | Stops |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kimi Antonelli | Leader | 1 |
| 2 | Oscar Piastri | +13.722 | 1 |
| 3 | Charles Leclerc | +15.270 | 1 |
| 4 | George Russell | +15.754 | 1 |
| 5 | Lando Norris | +23.479 | 1 |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton | +25.037 | 1 |
| 7 | Pierre Gasly | +32.340 | 1 |
| 8 | Max Verstappen | +32.677 | 1 |
| 9 | Liam Lawson | +50.180 | 1 |
| 10 | Esteban Ocon | +51.216 | 1 |
| 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | +52.280 | 1 |
| 12 | Isack Hadjar | +56.154 | 1 |
| 13 | Gabriel Bortoleto | +59.078 | 1 |
| 14 | Arvid Lindblad | +59.848 | 1 |
| 15 | Carlos Sainz | +65.008 | 1 |
| 16 | Franco Colapinto | +65.773 | 1 |
| 17 | Sergio Perez | +92.453 | 1 |
| 18 | Fernando Alonso | +1 Lap | 2 |
| 19 | Valtteri Bottas | +1 Lap | 1 |
| 20 | Alexander Albon | +2 Laps | 6 |
| 21 | Lance Stroll | DNF | 3 |
| 22 | Oliver Bearman | DNF | 1 |
Antonelli walked away with the win, but also with a warning he did not ignore. The starts still need work.
For now, though, the standings tell the story. A 19-year-old leads Formula 1, and he looks settled there.
