Antonelli wins Japanese GP turned upside down by safety car
Kimi Antonelli won Formula 1’s Japanese Grand Prix, benefitting from a mid-race safety car caused by a frightening high-speed crash for Ollie Bearman.
Antonelli started from pole position but was down in sixth by the end of lap one, wheelspinning off the line and being swallowed up by his team-mate George Russell, the McLarens and the Ferraris.
It was Oscar Piastri who led the race ahead of Russell in the early stages, but that was turned on its head by a lap 22/53 safety car caused by Ollie Bearman’s Haas ending up in the barriers.
Bearman was caught out by an extreme closing speed onto the back of Franco Colapinto’s Alpine into the Spoon Curve.
The 50G crash left Bearman with a right-knee contusion (bruising) following an X-ray assessment at the medical centre.
Piastri, Russell, Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris had already pitted, handing a big advantage to Antonelli (who had been running fourth) and Lewis Hamilton (who had been running sixth).
It allowed Antonelli to make his pitstop and emerge in the lead ahead of Piastri, Russell and Hamilton, who jumped Leclerc and Norris.
Antonelli went unchallenged thereafter, claiming back-to-back grand prix victories and becoming F1’s youngest ever championship leader.
He led Piastri home by 13.7 seconds.
Piastri had contained Russell in his first stint despite the Mercedes’ apparent stronger pace, meaning we’ll never know if Piastri could have won the race without the safety car intervention that cost him the lead to Antonelli.
Russell’s frustration
Russell, having pitted one lap before the safety car, told his Mercedes team, “Wow ****. Our luck in these last 2 races”, having been compromised in qualifying at the Chinese Grand Prix.
Things got even worse for Russell on the restart, as while Antonelli bolted clear, Hamilton picked off Russell into Turn 1 for third place.
While trying to find a way past Hamilton, Russell was then left vulnerable and passed by Leclerc, demoting him to fifth.
The Ferraris revived their Chinese GP dogfight with Leclerc passing Hamilton around the outside of Turn 1 with 11 laps to go, a standout move from a race dominated by passes on the straight.
Russell took advantage of that and passed Hamilton to reclaim fourth shortly afterwards.
He pressured and briefly jumped ahead of Leclerc, but the Ferrari driver wrestled back the podium position with another equally brave move at Turn 1.
Russell had to settle for fourth ahead of Norris and Hamilton, who slipped back to sixth.
Gasly beats Verstappen
Pierre Gasly’s Alpine led the midfield battle in seventh place, emerging on top from a close fight with Max Verstappen’s Red Bull.
Gasly had seventh place covered before the safety car, which wiped out his advantage.
Verstappen briefly passed Gasly with five laps to go, but Gasly took the place back shortly afterwards. Eighth marks Verstappen’s lowest grand prix finish since his ninth place in Hungary last August.
Racing Bull’s Liam Lawson charged from 14th to ninth, jumping Haas’s Esteban Ocon in the safety car shuffle.
Ocon did still earn his first point of an otherwise tricky 2026 in 10th place, ahead of Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg and Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar, who quickly dropped out of the top 10 and never returned, having outqualified Verstappen on Saturday.
Along with Bearman, Lance Stroll was the only other retiree due to a water leak aboard his Aston Martin Honda.
Result
1 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)
2 Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
3 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
4 George Russell (Mercedes)
5 Lando Norris (McLaren)
6 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
7 Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
8 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
9 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)
10 Esteban Ocon (Haas)
11 Nico Hulkenberg (Audi)
12 Isack Hadjar (Red Bull)
13 Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi)
14 Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls)
15 Carlos Sainz (Williams)
16 Franco Colapinto (Alpine)
17 Sergio Perez (Cadillac)
18 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
19 Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac)
20 Alex Albon (Williams)
DNF Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
DNF Ollie Bearman (Haas)
