Andrea Kimi Antonelli overcame another poor Mercedes start to take a commanding win of the Japanese Grand Prix, giving him the lead of the Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship.
The Italian dropped to sixth at the start, with Oscar Piastri – finally taking his first race start of the year – taking the lead.
But a mid-race Safety Car, sparked by a huge accident for Oliver Bearman, enabled Antonelli to take a cheap pit stop, seeing him maintain a lead he would hold until the flag.
Charles Leclerc finished third after an exciting late-race battle with George Russell, who becomes the first Mercedes driver to not score a podium finish this year.
Lando Norris got the better of Lewis Hamilton to take fifth place, with Max Verstappen no doubt continuing to feel disillusioned with eighth place, losing out to former teammate Pierre Gasly.
At the start, the Ferraris got a predictably good start, but it was Piastri who capitalised most. Sweeping past the Mercedes duo, the Australian had the lead into Turn 1, with Leclerc second.
Russell was fourth, Antonelli was sixth, a particularly poor start from the polesitter. Norris was up to third.
Lap 2, and Antonelli used his battery to scythe past Hamilton at Turn 1, with Russell dispatching Norris for third. Verstappen and Isack Hadjar squabbled for ninth, the Dutchman getting the better of his teammate at the final chicane, letting Ocon have a look at the Red Bull for 10th, duly taking the place.
Into Lap 4 and Russell was now ahead of Leclerc, with Antonelli needing to get ahead of Norris quickly to ensure he was keeping in touch with the sister Merc, but the reigning World Champion making himself tough to overtake.
Verstappen was up to eighth, moving ahead of Lindblad, and was now a second behind Gasly in seventh.
The leading two were now two seconds ahead of Leclerc, but Russell was still unable to get by Piastri who, like Norris, appeared to have enough grunt on the start-finish straight to keep in front.
Into Lap 9, and Russell managed to corner well enough to snatch the lead off Piastri at the final chicane, but, predictably, Piastri had enough megajoules to simply sweep back ahead into Turn 1.
Three laps later, Antonelli replicated the move on Norris, but on this occasion, the Mercedes had enough in the tank and the battery to keep ahead. Antonelli crucially now had just Leclerc between himself and Russell.
He would duly battle Leclerc for position but could not quite make it through, as pit crews were starting to be prepared by teams.
The first big hitter was Norris, who came out ninth behind Ocon, with Piastri coming in on Lap 19, emerging sixth behind Verstappen.
Leclerc was next, bolting on Hard tyres like the McLarens. Russell got itchy about staying out longer, and he boxed on Lap 22, coming out behind Piastri but in front of Verstappen.
Bearman shunts heavily to trigger Safety Car
Fate proved that Russell’s itchiness was premature, as Ollie Bearman’s Haas went off at the Spoon Curve, after avoiding a slow Franco Colapinto. The Brit skidded backwards into the wall, shunting heavily.
Bearman climbed out of his car but limped towards the right side of the barrier, appearing to be in considerable agony. Agony would be felt psychologically from Russell, who cursed his luck as the Safety Car was called.
Antonelli was free to take a cheap pit stop, coming back out in the lead, with Piastri buffered between him and Antonelli.
The Safety Car finally came in at the end of Lap 27, with Antonelli launching superly to maintain his lead. Steam was almost visibly leaving Russell’s ears as he lost out further, taken by Hamilton at Turn 1, due to pressing his harvesrt limit too early.
By Lap 31, Antonelli was almost three seconds ahead and extended it by another two seconds by Lap 36, as Russell began to inch closer to Hamilton.
His progress was halted by he suddenly slowed momentarily, letting Leclerc through into fourth.
Hamilton then started to feel the pressure from Leclerc, who hinted to his radio that he was the faster of the two red cars. But try as he might, Hamilton was not yielding.
On Lap 42, however, Leclerc bravely went around the outside of his teammate at Turn 1, the pair almost touching, but the Monegasque was through.
A lap later, and Russell capitalised, taking Hamilton for fourth, now a second behind Leclerc, as Antonelli now possessed an 11-second lead.
Hamilton outbraked himself at the final chicane, cutting it and giving himself a potential advantage over Norris, who was chasing him for fifth.
Leclerc puts a number on Russell as Antonelli sails serenely to the flag
Antonelli was now nearly 13 seconds ahead of Piastri, with Russell desperately looking at Leclerc’s third place. No such view of the front at Red Bull, with Verstappen holding station in eighth, chasing Gasly.
Norris finally got ahead of Hamilton, taking him at Turn 16 on Lap 48, but, again, the extra energy expended left the Ferrari with an easy task to breeze back ahead.
With three laps to go, Leclerc became increasingly pressurised by Russell, who got ahead at 16, and seemingly gaining enough of a gap to hold third, but Leclerc deployed enough to get under his rear wing, spring out of the tow and swooping past around the outside into Turn 1.
Antonelli was able to cruise around to the finishes, and this time, there would be no late-race mistakes. Japanese GP race-winner, F1 championship-leader.
Piastri was second, with Leclerc holding on to condemn Russell to fourth place. Norris, now ahead of Hamilton, took fifth, as Gasly held off Verstappen to take seventh.
Lawson recovered from a poor qualifying to take ninth, with Ocon taking his first point of the year with 10th.
For Antonelli, it was another new record, as his victory saw him become the first teenager to ever lead the World Championship, and taking the 125th victory for Mercedes in its modern era.
READ MORE – F1 2026 Japanese Grand Prix – Race Results
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