Antonelli wins 2026 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka to become youngest-ever Formula 1 championship leader

The result: Antonelli's second straight win

Kimi Antonelli won the Formula 1 Aramco Japanese Grand Prix 2026 at the Suzuka Circuit on Sunday 29 March, completing 53 laps in 1:28:03.403 to take his second consecutive Grand Prix victory. The official FIA final race classification records Oscar Piastri second for McLaren, 13.722 seconds behind, with Charles Leclerc third for Ferrari a further 1.548 seconds adrift. George Russell finished fourth in the other Mercedes, with Lando Norris fifth and Lewis Hamilton sixth. ⁵¹

Formula1.com's race report describes Antonelli's drive as commanding, noting he crossed the line more than 13 seconds clear after the Safety Car period. Pierre Gasly took seventh for Alpine, holding off Max Verstappen by just 0.337 seconds at the line, with Liam Lawson ninth for Racing Bulls and Esteban Ocon tenth, scoring his first points of the campaign. Antonelli also set the fastest lap, a 1:32.432 on lap 49, according to the FIA classification. ⁶⁵

Two drivers retired: Lance Stroll, whose Aston Martin was stopped with a suspected water pressure issue, and Oliver Bearman, whose heavy crash on lap 22 ended his race. Formula1.com reported Haas confirmed Bearman suffered no fractures in the roughly 50G impact, sustaining a right knee contusion; ESPN reported the Briton was taken to the on-track medical centre for X-rays which determined the same injury. ESPN described Bearman's crash as occurring at 191mph. ⁶¹⁰

Qualifying and the starting grid

Antonelli took pole position with a 1:28.778 in Q3, according to the official Formula 1 qualifying classification, beating Mercedes team-mate Russell by nearly three-tenths of a second. Crash.net recorded this as Antonelli's second pole of the season. Formula1.com's report noted that a different driver had topped each of the three practice sessions before Antonelli came out on top when it mattered. ²⁶⁷

Piastri qualified third ahead of Leclerc, Norris, Hamilton and Gasly, with the starting grid matching the qualifying order exactly. Verstappen was the notable casualty, eliminated in Q2 and starting 11th, while the two Aston Martins of Alonso and Stroll lined up at the back of the 22-car field. ³⁶⁹

The race began after a 10-minute delay while barriers damaged in an earlier support-race incident were repaired, per Formula1.com's account. All drivers started on the medium compound except Valtteri Bottas, whose Cadillac ran the hard tyre. ⁶

How the race turned on the Safety Car

Antonelli's start went badly wrong: Piastri surged from third to lead into Turn 1, Leclerc moved up to second, and both Mercedes dropped back, the polesitter falling to sixth and Russell to fourth, per ESPN's race report. Russell recovered through the order, passing Norris on lap three and Leclerc a lap later, and on lap eight he briefly took the lead from Piastri at the final chicane before the Australian retook the position on the pit straight. ¹⁰⁶

The decisive moment came on lap 22. Piastri, Russell and Leclerc had already made their pit stops when Bearman lost his Haas at speed attempting to pass Franco Colapinto at Spoon Curve, crashing heavily into the barriers, and the resulting Safety Car allowed Antonelli and Hamilton, who had yet to stop, to pit without losing track position. Antonelli emerged in the lead, while Russell, per ESPN, voiced his frustration over team radio at the timing. ¹⁰⁶

Antonelli executed a solid restart on lap 27 and steadily built an insurmountable advantage, while behind him Russell lost a place to Hamilton at the restart, recovered fourth by passing the Ferrari driver on lap 43, and twice challenged Leclerc for the final podium spot in the closing laps without success, per Formula1.com's lap-by-lap account. ⁶¹⁰

Piastri's second place carried particular significance for the Australian: it was his first race finish of the 2026 season, ESPN noting he had failed to start the first two races, and it delivered McLaren's first podium of the campaign, per Formula1.com. Antonelli, quoted by Formula1.com, acknowledged the fortune involved: "I had a terrible start - I just need to check what happened - but then I was lucky with the Safety Car to be in the lead. Then the pace was just incredible." ¹⁰⁶

Championship picture after three rounds

The FIA's post-race championship-points document, issued by the stewards on 29 March, records Antonelli leading the Drivers' Championship on 72 points, with Russell second on 63, Leclerc third on 49, Hamilton fourth on 41, Norris fifth on 25 and Piastri sixth on 21. In the Constructors' Championship, Mercedes-AMG Petronas led on 135 points from Ferrari on 90, McLaren on 46, TGR Haas on 18, BWT Alpine and Oracle Red Bull Racing on 16 apiece, and Visa Cash App Racing Bulls on 14. ⁴

Antonelli became the youngest driver ever to lead the Formula 1 world championship and the first teenager to do so, as reported by ESPN and Crash.net. ¹⁰⁷

Six drivers remained scoreless after Suzuka. The FIA's post-race championship-points document records Audi and Williams on two points each, while Cadillac and Aston Martin had yet to score. ⁴

Next stop: Miami after an April break

With no Sprint weekend at Suzuka - the official Formula 1 event schedule listed three practice sessions, qualifying and the Grand Prix - the 2026 season moved into an April break before resuming at the Miami Grand Prix on the weekend of 1-3 May, according to Formula1.com. ⁸⁶