Antonelli becomes F1’s youngest championship leader with Japanese GP win

Kimi Antonelli has taken the world championship lead for the first time after capitalizing on an early safety car to win the Japanese Grand Prix.

Antonelli suffered a dreadful start from pole position, dropping to sixth off the line, while Piastri had the dream getaway to take the lead immediately ahead of the fast-starting Charles Leclerc, with Lando Norris, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton behind. The Mercedes drivers, though, were on the move. With superior pace, Russell cut easily past Norris and Leclerc to take second place on lap 4, and Antonelli rose to P4 seven laps later after an extended battle behind the staunchly defending Norris.

Russell snatching the lead from Piastri seemed like an inevitability, but Piastri was clever with track position. Not only did he launch well down the straights to prevent an easy pass, but he tactically charged his battery into the chicane, even once allowing Russell to pass there, to ensure he could take back the lead down the front straight.

"If we hold track position, I think we can hold onto this," Piastri radioed his team, willing McLaren to undercut Russell to retain track position.

The team responded on lap 18, with Russell responding on lap 21 and rejoining behind the McLaren. The path looked clear for Piastri to grind out a gritty victory, but one lap later the race was turned on its head by a safety car called for a heavy Oliver Bearman crash.

Bearman had been chasing Franco Colapinto for 17th place when he had a massive speed advantage on the Argentine out of the hairpin. Closing suddenly on the back of the Alpine as it drifted towards the middle of the road, Bearman took evasive action and ended up on the grass, from where his car spun out of control and into the barriers on the outside of Spoon.

The 50g impact destroyed his car, and though Bearman was able to extract himself from the wreckage, he was taken to the medical center for scans which showed no fractures but a “a right knee contusion.”

The timing of the crash was disastrous for Piastri and Russell, who ceded the lead to Antonelli, who made his first pit stop during the caution.

Antonelli nailed the restart into the chicane to gap the field, and immediately the Italian began building a lead until it was clear he was uncatchable. He took the checkered flag with a 13.7s advantage to take a nine-point championship lead.

At 19 years old, Antonelli becomes the youngest championship leader in Formula 1 history, eclipsing Hamilton’s previous record as a title leader at 22 years old in his debut 2007 season. He’s also the first Italian to lead the championship since Giancarlo Fisichella after the 2005 Australian Grand Prix.

“It feels pretty good,” Antonelli said of his title lead. “Of course it’s still early to think about the championship, but we’re in a good way.

“I was lucky with the safety car to be in the lead, but then the pace was just incredible. It was a really nice second stint. I felt very good with the car, and I’m very pleased with that.”

Piastri initially looked vulnerable to Russell at the restart, but the Briton lost momentum down the front straight and was himself passed by Hamilton, giving the Australian a chance to establish himself in second.

Hamilton attempted to pressure him, but the scarlet car lacked the straight-line speed to attempt a move and soon came under attack from behind, which freed Piastri to secure second place for his first grand prix finish of the season.

“Turns out we’re all right if we get to the start,” he quipped. “It would’ve been really interesting to see what would’ve happened without [the safety car]. We clearly still need to find a bit of performance, but we took every opportunity we had today.”

The fight for the final podium place lasted until the final lap.

Russell, struggling for consistency in his Mercedes, was pressuring Hamilton when he appeared to run his battery dry on the run to Spoon, opening the door to Leclerc to pass him for fourth. Leclerc was soon behind Hamilton, and after telling his team he was losing time, he beat his teammate in a dicey wheel-to-wheel duel on lap 42.

Russell followed Leclerc past Hamilton on the following lap with a down-the-inside move at the first turn to rise to fourth. He glued himself to Leclerc’s gearbox, but the Ferrari driver didn’t give him an opening to use the Mercedes’s superior car pace.

He bided his time until lap 37, when he pounced on the Ferrari at the chicane, but Leclerc had just enough charge to take Russell side by side into the opening turn. Clinging to the outside line, he took back the place decisively.

“It was a bit of a sweaty one,” he said. “It was quite a fun race; just not quite enough to get Oscar. But it was a cool race.”

Russell finished fourth ahead of a close battle between Norris and Hamilton for fifth place, with the McLaren prevailing two laps from the finish.

Pierre Gasly capitalized on the safety car to seal seventh ahead of Max Verstappen, who could gain only three places from his lowly 11th grid spot.

Liam Lawson also gained behind the safety car to finish ninth for a pair of points ahead of Esteban Ocon in 10th.

Nico Hulkenberg finished 11th ahead of Isack Hadjar, Gabriel Bortoleto, Arvid Lindblad, Carlos Sainz and Franco Colapinto.

Sergio Perez was first among the backmarkers, beating Fernando Alonso – who recorded Aston Martin’s first finish of the season – Valtteri Bottas and Alex Albon, while Lance Stroll failed to finish.

RESULTS