Kimi Antonelli wins Japanese Grand Prix to become first teenage Championship leader

Credit: FORMULA 1. Kimi Antonelli celebrated his second victory in as many races in style.

Kimi Antonelli took his second win at the Japanese Grand Prix from Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc to become the first teenager to the lead the Championship.

Antonelli dropped back at the start but leaped to the front after a fortunately timed safety car following Ollie Bearman’s 50G crashed. The 19-year-old then sprinted into a 13 second gap to snatch the Championship lead from teammate George Russell.

Oscar Piastri completed his first Grand Prix laps this season in impressive fashion as he launched his McLaren to the lead at the start and held off Russell in the opening phase. McLaren teammate Lando Norris also reached third at the start, suggesting they can match Ferrari at competitive starts.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc followed Piastri through to second at the start and ran steady in third before getting caught by the Mercedes pair.

The Safety Car on lap 22 rued many drivers, especially Russell whose race then became an uphill struggle. Antonelli and Lewis Hamilton were the benefactors of this period, while the other front runners fell back.

A skirmish ensued between Russell and the two Ferraris, with Leclerc finishing third from Russell while Hamilton fell to sixth after being overtaken by Norris late on.

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly enjoyed another good weekend, finishing seventh and beating Max Verstappen in a race-long battle. Verstappen and Red Bull’s poor start to the season has left the four-time Champion wondering about his F1 future.

RB’s Liam Lawson finished in ninth and Esteban Ocon rounded out the points scorers for Haas.

Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar finished in twelfth and split the two Audis (Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto), with Hulkenberg finishing in unlucky eleventh for the second race running.

Arvid Lindblad had a tricky race after knocking Max Verstappen out of qualifying in the Red Bull sister RB car, finishing fourteenth.

Williams’ Carlos Sainz finished in fifteenth ahead of Alpine’s Franco Colapinto who was present at the Safety Car-causing incident. The vast difference in closing speeds caused by the battery management element of the new regulations meant Haas’ Ollie Bearman came firing into spoon curve much quicker than Colapinto ahead, having to take avoiding action on the grass before crashing into the barriers. The Briton is uninjured but limped out of the car.

Sergio Perez finished seventeenth for Cadillac in a clean race where both cars finished for the first time, with teammate Valterri Bottas also seeing the chequered flag in nineteenth.   

Fernando Alonso battled for last place with teammate Lance Stroll and finished in eighteenth for Aston Martin while Stroll retired with a suspected water leak.

Alex Albon was last of the finishers two laps down in twentieth after using the race as a testing session for Williams in the hopes of being more competitive soon.

Due to the cancellations of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, F1 doesn’t return until May in Miami – providing the teams with time to reflect on the opening races and attempt to understand the new regulations better.