Japanese Grand Prix: Kimi Antonelli wins again, youngest Formula 1 driver to lead Championship
F1 NewsSunday, 29 March 2026 at 08:44
Following his maiden win in Shanghai a fortnight ago, Kimi Antonelli took a second consecutive win in the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix along with the Formula 1 Championship lead.
Oscar Piastri, finally able to start a race in 2026, managed to take second place on a day of McLaren emergence as Charles Leclerc took the final podium position after an intense fight with George Russell who was fourth.
Russell this lost his lead to his teammate on a day when he was unlucky with the Safety Car which followed a tough qualifying with a wrong set up, which meant the race at Suzuka was the first time not both Mercedes featured on the podium.
Antonelli started the Grand Prix from pole, his second as well in a row, but as is the case with these 2026 F1 cars, the starts have become a lottery and as such the Italian bogged down at the start with excessive wheel spin and dropped to sixth.
Piastri shot to the lead with Leclerc following into second. Lando Norris jumped to third dropping Russell off the podium positions.
Watch the race start 🎥
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 29, 2026
A brilliant getaway for Piastri 💨#F1 #JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/NAUfrshrc6
However, the Mercedes drivers started making their way up the order until they reached a stalemate as Russell got stuck behind Piastri and hurting his tyres.
Antonelli on the other hand got stuck a Boost/Overtake train with Leclerc and Norris unable to make a move on the Briton which reminds us of the good old DRS train days.
On Lap 11, Antonelli finally managed to make a move on Norris stick but couldn't do the same on Leclerc ruining a move on Lap 15 at the chicane with a snap which meant the #16 Ferrari could retake the position.
From there on, it seemed that the game will be played in the pits with McLaren blinking first with Norris pitting on the start of Lap 17 as Leclerc followed at the end of the same lap to cover the reigning F1 Champion.
LAP 19/53
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 29, 2026
Now the race leader comes into the pits...
Piastri returns to the track in P6#F1 #JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/xRceT4aSuK
McLaren called Piastri from the lead a lap later as he rejoined in sixth while Mercedes kept both Russell (now leading) and Antonelli out with the latter closing in.
On Lap 21, Russell pitted from the lead and rejoined in fifth behind the Piastri who was now seeing a win on the cards.
But this is motorsport, and on Lap 22, Haas's Oliver Bearman was in the barriers at Spoon as he got caught out by the heavily harvesting Alpine of Franco Colapinto.
The Haas driver took evasive action, ended up on the grass, lost grip and ended up in the barriers with a 50G crash. He was visibly in pain, limping away from his crashed VF-26, but later checks in the medical center and X-Rays ruled out any fractures.
Here’s the moment Bearman went into the barriers at Spoon #F1 #JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/XmurXApWkp
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 29, 2026
That should shed some light on a safety problem with the new rules, but that is a story for another day.
The order behind the Safety Car was: Antonelli – Piastri – Russell – Lewis Hamilton – Leclerc – Norris – Pierre Gasly – Max Verstappen – Nico Hulkenberg – Liam Lawson
Moving on, the Safety Car was called at the end of Lap 27 and Antonelli led the pack while Hamilton mugged Russell for third.
The Briton was fuming over the radio as the Safety Car came out just after his pit stop; he said: "Unbelievable! Wow. Our luck in these last two races..."
That necessitated a reply from Toto Wolff: "See what you can do from here, yeah, super unlucky."
From there on, Russell set out chasing Hamilton which turned out to be a tough ask and the Briton ended up using a lot of his battery which meant Leclerc passed him for fourth on Lap 38.
From there, the Monegasque went on to pass Hamilton with Russell following suit as the #16 and #63 cars were locked in a fight to the flag with the Red Car prevailing.
LAP 51/53
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 29, 2026
The battle for third is going down to the wire! ⚔️
Russell seizes the final podium place only for Leclerc to immediately snatch it back 😮#F1 #JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/EodknZY2Ma
Russell managed to pass Leclerc briefly, but the Ferrari driver managed to sweep past the Mercedes with a brilliant move on the outside of Turn 1 and retake the position making use of the superior corner performance of the Ferrari... Like proper racing should be...
Behind the top three
Having failed to pass Leclerc, Russell had to settle for fourth at the flag ahead of Norris who was fifth in the McLaren.
It was a good damage limitation for the reigning F1 Champion who had a tough weekend, losing mileage in practice due to reliability problems as he now expects grid penalties as he has already used up his full season allocation of energy stores.
After looking good for a podium as some point, Hamilton finished the race in sixth. Following his intense fight with teammate, which he lost, the Briton dropped down the order like a stone and despite some fights with Norris, he could not take fifth.
LAP 41 & 42/53
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 29, 2026
Brilliant battling between the Ferraris 💪
And Leclerc gets through into the final podium place#F1 #JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/ii27lrWG1M
Gasly finished the race in seventh place for Alpine after another solid performance from both team and driver. The Frenchman was under pressure from Verstappen in the Red Bull who couldn't pass and had to settle for eighth having started the race from 11th.
Lawson did well to get into the points given he started in 14th. The Kiwi benefitted from the timing of the Safety Car to shoot up into the top ten eventually scoring two points in ninth position.
Esteban Ocon scored the final point after finishing tenth for Haas, a mild consolation for the American squad following the crash of Bearman.
Both Audi's failed to score points with Hulkenberg in 11th and Gabriel Bortoleto in 13th. The Brazilian started in ninth but lost out at the start and never recovered after that.
One of the Cadillacs managed to finish the race unlapped which was that of Sergio Perez who was 17th while Valtteri Bottas was one lap down on his way to 19th.
Aside from Bearman, the only other driver to fail to finish was Lance Stroll who was called in to retire the car due to an issue on Lap 31 while Fernando Alonso managed to complete the race in the vibrating AMR26, albeit one lap down.
What the top three said
Following the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix due to the Middle East war, Antonelli heads into the unexpected F1 break leading Russell in the Championship by nine points.
Asked how that felt, he said: "It feels pretty good! Of course, it's too early to think about the championship but we are on a good way.
"I had a terrible start. I need to check what happened," he looked back. "Then I was lucky with the Safety Car to be in the lead but then the pace was incredible.
"It was really nice. The second stint I felt very good with the car. I'm very pleased with that.
"I can practice some clutch drops to get a better feel with it," the young Mercedes driver said about his bad start, "because, definitely, it's been a weak point so far this year. I need to improve that because you can easily win or lose races with that.
"On the medium we were strong once we had free air and on the hard, the pace was incredible. I don't know what the outcome would have been without the Safety Car but it made my life a lot easier," he added.
"Get in there, Kimi!" #F1 #JapaneseGP @MercedesAMGF1 pic.twitter.com/drsTaVH9Pc
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 29, 2026
Following McLaren's resurgence and taking second place, Piastri saw a potnetial win slip away to an ill-timed Safety Car.
He commented: "It would have been really interesting to see what would have happened without that [Safety Car].
"I could keep George behind and just before the stops we were actually pulling away a little bit again.
"A shame that we never got to see what would happened but I think for us at this point to be disappointed about finishing second is a pretty good place to be," the Aussie concluded.
As for Leclerc, and after taking a hard-earned second podium in 2026, he said: "It was a bit of a sweaty one!
"With the Safety Car we got a bit unlucky, so from that moment onwards, I knew I was a bit on the back foot, especially to Kimi and Lewis.
"Then I was like 'OK, let's keep pushing and let's try to keep those tyres and bring them to the end'.
"But it was not as much of a disadvantage as I thought. The tyres were actually pretty good. The few laps I did were not so bad, it's just we lost a few positions.
"It was quite a fun race. Not quite enough to get Oscar but it was a cool race," the Ferrari driver concluded.
Japanese Grand Prix Provisional Classification
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