Antonelli Leaves Japan With Points Lead After Second-Straight Victory

Kimi Antonelli for Mercedes–AMG Petronas scored his second career Formula One victory in back-to-back fashion, winning the Japanese Grand Prix. Not only does the Bologna, Italy native take the championship points lead, he also becomes the youngest driver in series history to do so.

‘It feels pretty good,” Antonelli said. “Of course it’s still early days to think about the championship, but we’re on a good way.”

When the lights went out a the Suzuka Circuit, Oscar Piastri of McLaren would seize the lead early going into Turn 1 while both of the Mercedes cars of 19-year-old Antonelli, and George Russell, fell behind.

Lap 22 would see the biggest incident of the race, with Ollie Bearman for the Haas F1 Team at the Spoon Curve of Turn 13, resulting in a crash that would measure in 50g’s when impacting the barriers. Bearman would climb from his car, but was noticeably limping to the safety crew vehicles after exiting.

Here’s the moment Bearman went into the barriers at Spoon #F1 #JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/XmurXApWkp

— Formula 1 (@F1) March 29, 2026

After the safety car, the following restart would see Antonelli execute a smooth restart to gain the lead and build a significant gap, and never looked back.

At lap 37, Russell would suffer a power issue heading into Turn 13 that would see both of the Scuderia Ferrari entries of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton sweep past the season opener winner, ending what could’ve been two Mercedes on the podium.

Other notable finishers of the event were both Piastri and Leclerc, who would finish in the podium in both second and third respectively. Russell would nearly get around Leclerc with three to go, but would settle fourth.

Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing would be quiet for most of the day, coming home in the eighth position. Liam Lawson for Racing Bulls would fall right behind in ninth, and Esteban Ocon of Haas in 10th.

Official Results: