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Formula 1 Formula 1 Storylines Kimi Antonelli is the first teenager to lead the F1 drivers' world championship. Mark Thompson / Getty Images Kimi Antonelli won his second Formula 1 race in succession with victory at the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix and became, at 19, the youngest driver to lead the world championship, beating a record previously held by Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes driver, also the first teenager to win back-to-back F1 races, finished ahead of Mc Laren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who were second and third respectively, while fourth-placed George Russell lost ground in the intra-Mercedes title battle. Advertisement At the start, both Mercedes cars once again dropped back from the front row, with Piastri surging to the lead from third on the grid. Polesitter Antonelli dropped to sixth, while Russell went down to fourth. He quickly battled back to second using Mercedes’ superior race pace. But after passing Piastri once at Suzuka’s chicane, and Russell then falling behind the Mc Laren immediately in another example of the quickly-exchanging overtakes in 2026, the race at the front settled down. Piastri seemed comfortable holding off Russell as Antonelli took significantly longer to reclaim the ground he lost at the start. He got to third when Ferrari’s Leclerc pitted on Lap 17 of 53, as the leaders entered the race’s only pitstop phase. Piastri pitted on Lap 18 and Mercedes then held its cars out for longer. Russell stopped on Lap 21, with Antonelli closing in behind. But here the race’s key moment took place, when Haas driver Ollie Bearman crashed heavily at the Spoon corner as he was caught out by a big, sudden closing speed to Alpine’s Franco Colapinto ahead. Antonelli was able to stop with the race neutralized by the subsequent safety car activation and stayed in the lead, with Russell left frustrated to suddenly be down in third. At the restart, Antonelli scampered clear and eventually won by a commanding 13. 7-second margin, while Russell fell behind both Ferrari cars. He then only got back by Lewis Hamilton over the rest of the race and trailed Piastri and Leclerc home in fourth. Luke Smith, in Japan, and Madeline Coleman analyze the action. Antonelli arrived in Japan filled with confidence after scoring his maiden F1 victory in China two weeks ago, a race he’d largely controlled from the front of the pack. But his second win came in far more unusual — and somewhat fortuitous — circumstances, as he cashed in on the mid-race safety car following Bearman’s huge crash to return to the lead after dropping from pole to sixth off the line. Antonelli slowly picked his way back up the order with moves on Hamilton, Lando Norris and Leclerc, before jumping to the front of the pack after Russell, who was a couple of second ahead, pitted from the lead. Advertisement Bearman crashing one lap earlier and Russell would likely have kept his advantage, but the timing of the safety car played straight into Antonelli’s hands. He could pit while the rest of the field slowed down, allowing him to retain first position. It essentially ended the race up front. Antonelli nailed the restart and quickly built a gap to the chasing pack, while Russell — who fumed on the radio about his bad luck — slid behind Hamilton as well upon the return to green. After some back-and-forth passes with the Ferraris, Russell eventually crossed the line fourth. Antonelli’s win not only adds another shot of momentum into his early-season form, but it also underlines his credentials as a serious contender for this year’s world championship. Yes, there was fortune involved in Japan, but he seized the moment impeccably. It also led to two pieces of history, as he beat Hamilton’s previous record of leading the points standings from 2007 when the now-seven-time world champion was 22, plus becoming the first teenager to win two F1 races. Max Verstappen missed out on establishing that record by one day when he won the 2017 Malaysian GP a day after turning 20. Luke Smith Mc Laren has had a curious start to the season, as Mercedes and Ferrari pulled ahead and created a healthy gap in the constructors’ standings over the reigning champion squad. Piastri had failed to start either of the first two races this season, and Norris didn’t start the Chinese GP either, leaving Mc Laren sitting just one point ahead of fourth-placed Haas heading into the Suzuka weekend. As this unfolded, the fortunes of the two Mc Laren drivers diverged. Norris encountered reliability issues throughout the practice sessions and headed into Sunday’s race without having done any high fuel running, putting him on the back foot. He’s also on his third engine battery — the last one in his allotted amount for the season. If Mc Laren has to change to a fourth sometime this season, he’ll face a grid penalty. Advertisement Meanwhile, Piastri looked “reasonably good” throughout the weekend, as he put it in Mc Laren’s post-qualifying recap, and ultimately qualified third. And when the five lights went out on Sunday, he nailed the start. Antonelli may have reacted quicker than Piastri, but he didn’t accelerate quick enough. The Mc Laren zoomed into the lead and Piastri found himself leading the race in his first GP start of the season. The question was whether he could maintain his position, given Mercedes’ pace advantage, as Russell and Antonelli picked their way through the field. Piastri first found himself tangling with Russell, a bit of yo-yo-esque racing coming on laps eight and nine, as Russell took the lead under braking at the chicane only for the Australian driver to take it back on the pit straight given he saved some of his battery energy. When he was over a second ahead of Russell, Piastri said on Lap 15 over the radio, “If we hold track position, I think we can hang onto this. ” And it looked like he could. As the pit stops unfolded, Piastri held the net-race lead. But then came Bearman’s wreck. Antonelli essentially got a free pit stop, and Piastri was unable to catch him again. The final gap between the two was nearly 14 seconds, but second is a big step in the right direction for Mc Laren and Piastri. Madeline Coleman Gone are the days of Verstappen dominating at Suzuka, where he won every year between 2022-2025. Even his comeback in last season’s title fight seems like a distant memory given how Red Bull is performing three races into the new campaign with its new engine. Verstappen has failed to qualify higher than eighth this season, which he did in Australia, and last time out in China, where he didn’t score points in the sprint race and retired from the grand prix. It’s no secret Verstappen has been critical of the new regulations, and that Red Bull has dropped back from the other top teams. Coming into Japan, the team brought multiple upgrades, but the performance still didn’t improve. Verstappen qualified 11th, while teammate Isack Hadjar qualified eighth. Advertisement Last year, Red Bull was strong in making set-up changes and tweaking car variations from across a weekend to unlock more performance. But Verstappen said on Saturday: “A few parts of the car are not working how they should be working, and that’s limiting us to even when you just need set-up changes. It still doesn’t respond like we used to do in the past. ” It painted a grim picture for Sunday’s race. Would Red Bull even be the fourth-fastest car? After all, Alpine, Audi and Racing Bulls seemed strong around Verstappen, with all three teams having a driver in the top 10 for the start. Verstappen managed to gain a position come the second lap, and he eventually found himself briefly battling his teammate, Hadjar, but it was not a long contest as Verstappen rapidly moved ahead. He battled Pierre Gasly for much of the race’s second half, where he was concerned about his steering. “It feels like I’m driving without power steering. My steering rack is heavy, ” he reported to Red Bull over his team radio. In the end, he scored points and finished eighth. Verstappen and Red Bull will benefit from the upcoming April break, which comes because of the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian GPs. It’ll give them a moment to reset and review their data without having to live react during a race weekend setting. Madeline Coleman Bearman’s terrifying crash not only impacted the race result, but it is also likely to be one of the lasting memories of this race, such was its severity. The first TV footage of the accident showed Bearman’s Haas in the barrier at Spoon, which is one of the fastest points of the circuit. After he got out of his car, the cameras showed Bearman gingerly walking away from the shunt and being aided by a marshal as he went to sit behind the barriers. Then came the onboard footage of the crash, which revealed what the horror shunt. Advertisement He’d been gaining rapidly on Colapinto’s Alpine with a shocking difference in closing speed on approach to Spoon and as Bearman moved left he slid onto the grass and lost control, before flying across the track and smashing into the barriers on the outside. According to Sky Sports pundit Bernie Collins, the difference in closing speed was around 28mph, as Bearman swerved around Colapinto. “He just had a huge closing speed against Colapinto, so he had to take avoiding action and he went on the grass and crashed, ” said Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu on Sky. He also called the accident “scary. ” Komatsu added that he did not think Colapinto had moved late in defense: “The main thing is just the closing speed, which was huge. ” The impact was 50G, and Bearman was taken to the track’s medical center for an X-ray which, thankfully, showed he’d suffered no fractures. He did, however, have a contusion on his right knee. Drivers have been speaking for some time about their concerns over the difference in closing speeds with these new cars. This occurs when one engine suddenly starts harvesting electrical energy and slows the car, while another driver may be deploying energy and gaining speed. A situation like this, where Colapinto’s car was seemingly harvesting and going slower, while Bearman was using his energy to close up, had been flagged as a potential issue in preseason testing. Now it’s happened and will be a major discussion point heading to the next race in Miami in early May. Luke Smith Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle