Mercedes driver benefits from Safety Car timing to secure second-straight victory and championship lead.
Kimi Antonelli recovered from a poor start and was aided by a dose of fortune as he made it back-to-back victories at the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in history to lead the Formula 1 world championship.
Autoweek rounds up the main action from Suzuka.Antonelli benefits from a slice of luckKimi Antonelli captured back-to-back victories and heads into the prolonged spring break at the helm of the Drivers’ Championship—the youngest driver in history to do so. But the path to breaking Lewis Hamilton’s near-20-year record was significantly less straightforward than his maiden win last time out in China. A mediocre start was accentuated by a dose of wheelspin, and from pole position Antonelli tumbled to sixth position. From there he made gradual progress to return to the podium places, but it was the timing of the Safety Car for Ollie Bearman’s accident which transformed his prospects. Leader Oscar Piastri and chaser George Russell had just pitted prior to the deployment of the Safety Car, and Antonelli responded by making his mandatory stop at reduced racing speeds—consequently emerging at the head of the pack. Once there and in free air the young Italian was magnificent, mastering the restart before streaking clear of the chasers to triumph by 13.7 seconds. “Obviously, a very special win and a very special track,” said Antonelli. “But, you know, on one side I’m very happy, but on the other side I’m a bit disappointed with how the start went. It’s an area where I need to work a lot, because it’s definitely not good enough and I’m just making my life a lot harder. So, definitely a lot of work to do still. But I was very lucky, of course, with the timing of the Safety Car, but yeah, then pace was very, very strong and really happy with that.”Mercedes boss Toto Wolff echoed Antonelli in agreeing that “sometimes you need the luck to go your way in racing” but outlined that “his pace in the second half of the race showed what he was capable of.”The successive wins give Antonelli a nine-point buffer over Russell after the opening trio of grands prix. Piastri back on the podium“When we start these things we’re quite good,” quipped Oscar Piastri. The Australian’s sense of humor remains intact after a troubled start to the campaign. Sunday was Piastri’s first grand prix of the year, after the reconnaissance lap accident in Australia and the pre-race electrical problem in China, and it was a strong showing. Piastri catapulted his McLaren MCL40 into the lead off the line and perhaps expected to be quickly overhauled by the Mercedes drivers—but he was instead able to preserve a buffer over Russell, after the early trade of positions that is becoming the norm under the yo-yo style of racing. “I think this weekend we just did a really good job of optimising what we had,” Piastri said. “I think our starts through the practice sessions were really strong, and then I think the pace was probably a positive surprise. I think having clean air probably helped quite a lot at the start, but we did a good job, and I could pull away from George a little bit right before the stops. And yes, I think the strategy was good as well. So, I think we just nailed everything. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite enough for the win, but I think at the moment a result like today is as good as a win for us at the moment.”Piastri added that he would have “loved to have seen how it would have panned out” without the intervention of the safety car but surmised that “once Kimi had clean air, clearly, he was a lot faster than me. So, I’m not sure we would have won the race.”It was overall a positive display from McLaren after a rough start to the campaign both in terms of results and outright performance. “The speed we showed in qualifying was confirmed in the race, and we were genuinely able to fight with Ferrari and, at times, Mercedes,” said Team Principal Andrea Stella.Russell left to rue missed chancesLife has been less rosy for George Russell since his commanding performance at the opening round in Australia. After his damage limitation race in China, Japan brought a spate of setbacks and missed chances that left him off the podium for the first time in 2026. A tardy getaway dropped him from second to third, while a bold Lando Norris move relegated him further to fourth. Russell soon dispensed with the fast-starting Norris and Charles Leclerc and was tailing the strong Piastri when he agonizingly stopped just one lap before the Safety Car period. Russell took the restart third but lost ground to Lewis Hamilton at the restart, with Mercedes explaining he hit the harvest limit, while shortly afterwards an unexpected superclip briefly hobbled his W17. From fifth Russell re-passed Hamilton, but was unable to make a move stick on Leclerc, and wound up fourth. “If it had been one lap difference, then it probably would have been a race win,” Russell said on the timing of his pit stop. “That’s frustrating. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Obviously, we both made bad starts—mine was slightly less bad. Safety Car timing, restart, I got a harvest limit which meant I couldn’t recharge my battery, similar to what’s happened with some drivers at the race starts. I had no battery to restart—Lewis passed me—and then I faced another battery problem when Charles passed me.”Aston Martin gets a finishThere was a small crumb of comfort for the beleaguered Aston Martin squad in Japan as on the home turf of power unit partner Honda it finally managed a full race distance. New father Fernando Alonso was a backmarker throughout the weekend but got the AMR26 to the finish in 18th position, a result he described as “clear progress,” though the sister car of Lance Stroll retired due to a water leak. There was more progress to be heralded at Cadillac, with Sergio Perez finishing on the lead lap in 17th place, as the team’s first raft of updates yielded performance. “Today was our strongest race so far this year,” said Perez. “We’ve made a lot of progress in a short space of time, and we can be happy to get two cars past the finish yet again. Yesterday we had some issues with the deployment and today it felt like we were on top of it. We were clearly faster than Aston Martin and we can see our pace is getting stronger.”Valtteri Bottas ensured it was another two-car finish, in 19th spot, though his race was hampered by starting off-strategy on Hard tires—the only driver to do so—and he wasn’t able to catch the rear of the train before the restart mid-race. “I was lacking a bit of performance, which meant I struggled to challenge the Aston Martins today, so it’s something we need to look at,” Bottas said. “We tried a different strategy by starting with the Hard tire, but unfortunately it didn’t seem to work.”RESULTSFormula 1 Aramco Japanese Grand PrixSuzuka Circuit, JapanMarch 29, 2026Finish/Start/Driver/Team/Laps/Time/Points1 Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, 53, 1:28:03.403, 252 Oscar Piastri, McLaren, 53, +13.722s, 183 Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 53, +15.270s, 154 George Russell, Mercedes, 53, +15.754s, 125 Lando Norris, McLaren, 53, +23.479s, 106 Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, 53, +25.037s, 87 Pierre Gasly, Alpine, 53, +32.340s, 68 Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 53, +32.677s, 49 Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls, 53, +50.180s, 210 Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team, 53, +51.216s, 111 Nico Hulkenberg, Audi, 53, +52.280s, 012 Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing, 53, +56.154s, 013 Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi, 53, +59.078s, 014 Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls, 53, +59.848s, 015 Carlos Sainz, Williams, 53, +65.008s, 016 Franco Colapinto, Alpine, 53, +65.773s, 017 Sergio Perez, Cadillac, 53, +92.453s, 018 , Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin, 52, +1 lap, 019 , Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac, 52, +1 lap, 020 , Alexander Albon, Williams, 51, +2 laps, 0NC Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, 30, DNF, 0NC Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team, 20, DNF, 0
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