29 Mar 2026
Kimi Antonelli took his second win in as many races at the Japanese Grand Prix, a result that made him the youngest driver ever to lead the Formula 1 World Championship.
Kimi Antonelli won the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka on 29 March, his second victory in succession, taking pole and controlling the race from lights to flag to beat McLaren's Oscar Piastri by 13.722 seconds. Charles Leclerc was third for Ferrari, with George Russell fourth after starting alongside Antonelli on the front row.
The win was Mercedes' third from three races in 2026 — Russell in Melbourne, then Antonelli in Shanghai and again in Suzuka — an unbeaten start to the new regulations for the team. Antonelli's strategy mirrored his Chinese Grand Prix win: a stint on mediums before switching to hards for the remainder of the 53-lap race, with his fastest lap of the afternoon, a 1:32.432, coming late on lap 49.
According to Formula1.com, the result made Antonelli the youngest driver ever to lead the Formula 1 World Championship standings. It capped a maiden month in the sport's top flight in which he had gone from race winner to championship leader inside three rounds — a trajectory that set the tone for the rest of his season.
Behind the podium, Lando Norris could only manage fifth for McLaren and Lewis Hamilton sixth for Ferrari, both more than 20 seconds off the win — continuing the pattern from the opening two rounds of a Mercedes car that had adapted fastest to Formula 1's new power unit and aerodynamic rules.
Three rounds, three different Mercedes results at the front — Russell's win, then two for Antonelli — but the same team both times on top. For a driver in only his fourth grand prix start, leading the championship after Suzuka was less a fluke than the clearest early sign of a season Antonelli would go on to dominate: by the summer break he had turned that early lead into a 50-point advantage at the top of the table.
After the worst start of any established team in 2026 — 10th in the constructors' championship on a single point — Aston Martin's 16-part upgrade at the Hungarian Grand Prix cut their race-day deficit from over five seconds a lap to close to two, with Honda's first in-season engine upgrade arriving this weekend at the Dutch Grand Prix.
Four seasons after their last title, Mercedes have won eight of the first eleven 2026 races and lead both championships comfortably at the summer break — with rookie-turned-contender Kimi Antonelli out front and George Russell third, their strongest form since the end of the hybrid-dominance era.
Formula 1's reigning world champion has one grand prix win and three retirements through eleven rounds of 2026 — a season shaped more by McLaren's reliability than by his pace.
Formula 1's newest team enters its second half still searching for a maiden points finish, and does so under new leadership after Cadillac replaced team principal Graeme Lowdon with Marcin Budkowski partway through its debut season.