Antonelli takes championship lead after surging to victory in Japan from Piastri and Leclerc

Kimi Antonelli has sealed victory at the Japanese Grand Prix, the Italian becoming the youngest-ever championship leader after putting in a commanding drive to claim his second consecutive win from Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc following an earlier Safety Car.

When the lights went out at the Suzuka Circuit, Piastri made a stunning start to seize the lead into Turn 1 while the Mercedes cars slipped backwards. The Silver Arrows pair soon embarked on a recovery drive, however, with George Russell going on to challenge the McLaren racer for the lead – though was unable to make a move stick.

As some drivers started to make their pit stops, including leaders Piastri and Russell, a heavy crash for Haas’ Ollie Bearman brought out the Safety Car on Lap 22, allowing Antonelli – who was yet to pit and had provisionally been in the lead – to visit the pits and reemerge in P1.

From there the youngster executed a smooth restart to hold onto P1 and build a significant gap up ahead, crossing the line with a margin of 13.722s over Piastri – with the win also moving him up into the lead of the Drivers’ Championship, making him the youngest driver in history to head the standings.

Piastri recorded his first race finish of the season in style, the Australian taking McLaren’s debut podium of the campaign with his P2 result, while Leclerc fended off a chasing Russell to seal the final spot on the rostrum in third.

This left Russell to settle for fourth – the Briton having earlier voiced his frustration at the timing of the Safety Car – while McLaren’s Lando Norris claimed fifth following a close scrap with Lewis Hamilton in the latter stages, the Ferrari man ending the event in sixth.

Pierre Gasly was a solid seventh for Alpine, the Frenchman having had to defend hard against a chasing Max Verstappen for much of the second half of the race. The Red Bull man finished just 0.337s behind in eighth, while Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson and Haas’ Esteban Ocon rounded out the top 10.

Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg just missed out on points in 11th, ahead of Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar in 12th and the other Audi of Gabriel Bortoleto in 13th. Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad claimed 14th, ahead of the Williams of Carlos Sainz and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto in 15th and 16th respectively.

Sergio Perez was the lead Cadillac in P17, with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, the sister Cadillac of Valtteri Bottas and Williams’ Alex Albon – who recorded a total of six pit stops in the race – completing the classification.

Two drivers retired from the event, with Lance Stroll forced to bring his Aston Martin back to the garage owing to a suspected water pressure issue. Bearman’s crash put him out of the running, though the Haas team fortunately later reported that the Briton had not suffered any fractures in the 50G incident.

AS IT HAPPENED

Following three practice sessions and an intriguing Qualifying at the Suzuka Circuit, the attentions of the paddock turned to race day for Round 3 of the season, the Japanese Grand Prix.

After a different name set the pace in each practice outing, it was Antonelli who came out on top when the starting order for the grid was decided, the Italian beating team mate Russell by a margin of nearly three-tenths.

Elsewhere, Piastri had added to his hopes of finally participating in a Grand Prix by taking third place, while one of the big stories was the exit of Verstappen in Q2, leaving the Dutchman down in P11.

Amid a 10-minute delay to the start while barriers repairs were carried out owing to an incident in an earlier support race, all 22 drivers belatedly lined up for the expected one-stop race in dry and mild conditions at Suzuka.

When the tyre blankets were removed prior to the formation lap, it was revealed that all of the field would start on the medium tyres for the 53-lap Grand Prix – with the exception of Bottas, whose Cadillac was sporting the hard compound.

As the lights went out at Suzuka, Piastri was the one to watch off the line, the McLaren man surging forwards to take the lead into Turn 1. Leclerc also enjoyed a good launch to move up into second – but the Mercedes pair dropped backwards, leaving Russell in fourth and Antonelli down in sixth.

Norris had climbed up to third with a move around the outside of Russell, while Hamilton was running in fifth – though that did not last long, Antonelli overtaking for P5 on the next lap. Elsewhere in the pack, Verstappen made a move on team mate Hadjar to claim P9, leaving the Frenchman under pressure from Ocon behind.

By Lap 3 Russell had picked off Norris for third place as the Mercedes recovery continued, with Antonelli subsequently hot on the tail of the World Champion. Meanwhile Russell gained another position one tour later by overtaking Leclerc, meaning that leader Piastri was next in his sights.

Verstappen snatched eighth place from Lindblad, before the Racing Bulls rookie lost another place to Ocon. Across the pack, the Audi pair had lost out – slipping back several positions from their starting positions of P9 and P13 – while Bottas was running at the very back, the sole driver on the hard tyres.

With eight laps down, Russell was putting Piastri under increased pressure, having closed to just a few tenths back from the McLaren. The British driver initially took the lead into the final corner – before Piastri retook the position into Turn 1.

Behind them, Norris was still keeping Antonelli at bay whilst also trying to find a way past Leclerc, the three locked in a thrilling battle. As Lap 10 ticked down, the rest of the top 10 consisted of Hamilton in sixth from Gasly, Verstappen, Ocon and Lindblad, though Hadjar was less than half a second behind in 11th.

After playing the waiting game, Antonelli finally made a move on Norris during Lap 11 – in an overtake that looked very similar to Russell’s earlier attempt on Piastri. Leclerc was the next target and the Italian tried to find a way past a few laps later, only for the Monegasque to rebuff the effort.

Just as Piastri discussed the possibility of pitting early with his race engineer, the McLaren pit crew emerged on Lap 17 – but the stop was for Norris, who returned to the track in P9 with the hard tyres on his MCL40.

Others also started to follow suit, including Leclerc who dived into the pits after facing continued pressure from Antonelli, subsequently emerging ahead of Norris on track. Shortly afterwards it was time for Piastri to make his stop, the Australian coming back out in sixth with a set of hard tyres on.

This left Russell and Antonelli out front, with neither having yet pitted. “I think I'm going to lose a lot of race time extending,” said Russell as Lap 20 ticked down, the Briton running around 20 seconds ahead of Piastri – who was making gains after overtaking Verstappen for P5.

The Mercedes pit crew emerged for Russell on Lap 22, bringing him back out on track ahead of Verstappen in fifth – yet just a few moments later, a heavy crash for Bearman at Turn 13 brought out the Safety Car. The Haas driver was seen getting out of the car but looked to be limping, with the marshals coming to his aid.

Meanwhile, Antonelli and Hamilton – running in first and second – subsequently made their pit stops, allowing the former to keep the lead while the latter emerged in fourth behind Piastri and Russell.

The timing was causing some frustration for Russell, who complained about his lack of luck over the radio – prompting a response from Team Principal Toto Wolff, who encouraged the Briton to “see what you can do from here”.

With the race at nearly halfway distance and still running under the Safety Car, Antonelli led from Piastri, Russell, Hamilton, Leclerc, Norris, Gasly, Verstappen, Lawson and Bortoleto, with everybody having made a pit stop.

Ahead of the Safety Car period coming to an end on Lap 27, Russell queried if Antonelli would “go in the place we trained”, his race engineer responding that they were “not sure”. The Italian executed a solid restart to hold a lead of over one second from Piastri – but it did not go so well for Russell, who lost a position to Hamilton.

While Hamilton went on the chase of Piastri, Russell remained close with Leclerc and Norris not far behind. Slightly adrift of that pack were a battling Gasly and Verstappen, the Alpine driver defending hard against the four-time World Champion.

“The car ahead keeps going off,” Hamilton radioed in as he continued his pursuit of Piastri, while Stroll headed into the Aston Martin garage to retire the car. Elsewhere, positive news came from Haas as the team confirmed that Bearman had not suffered any fractures from his incident, though the Briton had suffered a "right knee contusion" in the 50G impact.

With 35 laps down, Antonelli had extended his lead to nearly five seconds from Piastri, with Hamilton a further second back in third. Russell remained within touching distance of the Ferrari in fourth ahead of Leclerc, while Norris was a more distant sixth. Gasly was continuing to hold back Verstappen in seventh, with Lawson and Ocon rounding out the top 10.

A few laps later, Russell appeared to slow as Leclerc went past the Mercedes – but the six-time race winner seemed to pick up pace again, though remained in fifth as the Ferrari cars looked to potentially be in an intra-team battle ahead as Leclerc closed to little over half a second from his team mate.

“We are losing a bit of time, for info,” Leclerc went on to report before attempting a move on Hamilton, only for the seven-time World Champion to close the door. The Monegasque tried again on Lap 42 – and after some nail-bitingly close moments, Leclerc used Overtake to get past into Turn 1.

As Leclerc opened up a gap in third, Hamilton fell into the clutches of Russell, leading the Mercedes to sweep past on the main straight to claim P4. Amid Hamilton’s pace struggles, Norris had also caught up behind as he became the next to hunt down the Ferrari.

A lock-up for Hamilton saw him run over the apex at Turn 16, leading the stewards to note the incident for allegedly leaving the track and gaining an advantage – just as Norris called for the Ferrari man to give up the position. It was subsequently decided that there would be no further investigation.

Up ahead, as the final laps ticked down, Antonelli had stretched out his lead even further to 13 seconds, while Piastri was nearly two seconds clear of Leclerc. The Monegasque, however, had Russell all over the back of his car, while Norris overtook Hamilton for fifth before the latter retook the position moments later.

Further back, Verstappen had found a way past Gasly – only for the Frenchman to also get back ahead. Meanwhile Russell made a move on Leclerc for P3 with just two laps to spare, before Leclerc bravely went around the outside at Turn 1 to grab the position back.

The battles were continuing throughout, with Norris again picking off Hamilton for P5 on the penultimate lap of the race – but would the likes of Russell and Verstappen be able to get past their respective opponents?

There were no such concerns for Antonelli out front, who crossed the line with a more than 13-second advantage over Piastri to claim his second career victory – which in the process elevated him to the lead of the Drivers' Championship on 72 points, putting him nine points clear of Russell.

Piastri recorded his first Grand Prix finish of the season in second, while Leclerc kept Russell at bay to claim third. Russell had to settle for fourth ahead of Norris and Hamilton in fifth and sixth respectively, while Gasly managed to stay ahead of Verstappen in seventh – though only just, with the gap a mere three-tenths of a second at the line.

Lawson added to Racing Bulls’ tally in ninth, while Ocon claimed his first points of the campaign in 10th. Hulkenberg followed in 11th, ahead of Hadjar, Bortoleto, Lindblad, Sainz, Colapinto, Perez, Alonso, Bottas and Albon.

Stroll and Bearman were the two retires from the event, the former having suffered a suspected water pressure issue while the latter’s crash put him out of the event.

Key quote

“It feels pretty good,” said Antonelli. “Of course it's still early days to think about the championship, but we're on a good way. In the race, I had a terrible start – I just need to check what happened – but then I was lucky with the Safety Car to be in the lead. Then the pace was just incredible and it was a really nice second stint. I felt very good with the car and very pleased with that.”

What's next

With there now being a break in the calendar during April, the 2026 F1 season will resume at the Miami Grand Prix on the weekend of May 1-3. Head to the RACE HUB to find out how you can follow the action from the Miami International Autodrome.