Antonelli Converts Pole Position Into His Second Career Victory

Kimi Antonelli turned his pole position into a race win at Suzuka! Having done so, he becomes the youngest ever World Championship Leader at just 19 years of age.

But it wasn't just good news for the young Italian. Oscar Piastri FINALLY started a race! And not only that... he got a podium out of it too! The top three was completed by Charles Leclerc who placed third in the race.

This was the first race this year where all 22 drivers lined up on the grid. Everyone started on the yellow walled medium tyres, except Cadillac driver, Valtteri Bottas, who opted for the hard tyres.

As the lights went out, it was a poor start for our pole sitter who appeared to have had quite a bit of wheel spin off the line. Instead, it was Piastri who got the best start, and flew past the two Mercedes drivers on the front row, to take the lead of his first race of 2026. Leclerc also had a good launch and got ahead of the Mercedes duo. After the first few corners, Piastri was leading, Leclerc behind him, Norris following, George Russell in fourth, Lewis Hamilton just behind, and Antonelli in a disappointing sixth position.

It didn't take long for Russell to get past his fellow Brit. And it was soon after that he picked off Leclerc too - Piastri and the race lead now in his sights for the taking.

Further down the pack, Vertsappen was picking his way through the grid, first overtaking his teammate Isack Hadjar, and then Arvid Lindblad. On his hard tyres, Bottas was running last.

The top two jostled for position, with Russell overtaking Piastri, before the Australian then retook the lead. Norris was keeping Antonelli at bay but was looking for a way past Leclerc in P3. However, the young Italian managed to get past our current World Champion and it was Leclerc up ahead.

Norris popped into the pit lane to change his tyres, prompting others to follow in behind him. All eyes turned to Leclerc and Ferrari when he came in, to see if they could get him back out in front of Norris. And they managed it! The Mercedes pair waited...

Russell, on Lap 22, completed his pit stop and re-emerged in fifth position, ahead of Verstappen. However, on Lap 23, an incident between Franco Colapinto and Oliver Bearman ended up with the latter crashing into the barriers and bringing out a safety car. Bearman got out of his car and limped over to the marshals.

With the safety car now out, Antonelli and Hamilton (who were yet to take their pit stops) were able to come in for a 'cheap stop' - where the drivers lose less time on their stops due to the other cars on track having a speed limit. Russell wasn't very happy with this situation, and called it "unbelievable" on his team radio.

As the laps under the safety car continued to almost halfway of the race distance, Antonelli led from Piastri, Russell, Hamilton, Leclerc, Norris, Pierre Gasly, Verstappen, Liam Lawson, and Gabriel Borteleto. Everyone has now made a pit stop.

On the race restart, Antonelli timed it perfectly and managed to keep a hold of his lead. Unfortunately for Russell, he lost his position to Hamilton. The seven-time World Champion now had to chase Piastri.

It was another disappointing series of events for Aston Martin whose car is proving to not be raceable. Lance Stroll retired his car. Looking on the bright side of some news, Haas reported that Bearman sustained no injuries in his crash, although he had suffered a "right knee contusion". The impact of the crash was 50Gs.

35 laps down and Antonelli had extended his lead over Piastri to 5 seconds. Russell was closing in on Hamilton for third place and down in seventh, Alpine star Gasly was holding back his old teammate Verstappen.

It was close between Leclerc and Russell in fourth place, but the Monegasque eventually ended up in front. His sights were now on his teammate, Hamilton, and after some close moments of racing, Leclerc got past him. Russell then also got ahead of his former teammate at Mercedes and it was now Norris who was behind him to try and take position.

Racing between Leclerc and Russell was nip and tuck as the Brit tried to take the last podium position. Up ahead, Antonelli had extended his lead from Piastri to 13 seconds. Vertsappen finally found a way past Gasly who, in my opinion, has been going very under the radar this year so far, but it wasn't long before the Frenchman got back ahead. Norris was able to get past of Hamilton in the end.

Kimi Antonelli crossed the line in first place, taking his second career win - and they were back to back! He was followed by Piastri, Leclerc, Russell, Norris, Hamilton, Gasly, Verstappen. Lawson, and Esteban Ocon (scoring his first point of the season).

Let's hear what our race winner had to say: "It feels pretty good. Of course it's still early days to think about the Championship, but we're on a good way. In the race, 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 and it was a really nice second stint. I felt very good with the car and very pleased with that."

There is now a big break in the F1 calendar where the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix's have been cancelled due to external circumstances. Racing will resume on the first weekend of May in sunny Miami.

Also, if there's anyone interested in my Fantasy Formula 1 points... I can assure you, it's getting better (yay!) I've made it to P18! Let's wait and see what Miami has in store for us all.