The 2026 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka had it all on Sunday – start chaos, a 50G crash, safety car drama, and a teenager rewriting the record books. The stories of the three races in 2026 are already writing themselves.
Here's who has advanced and who is seeing the season end.
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Winner: Kimi Antonelli | mercedes
Kimi Antonelli got off to a bad start. A wheelspin off the line dropped him from pole to sixth before the first corner sequence was over. Under normal circumstances, that's how you lose the race at Suzuka.
Nothing seems normal about Kimmy Antonelli right now.
When the safety car came out on lap 22 due to Oliver Bearman's heavy crash, Antonelli – who had not yet pitted and was temporarily leading – made a free stop to turn the race into the lead. From there, he just didn't survive. He pulled. He crossed the line by almost 14 seconds over Oscar Piastri, his second consecutive victory.
Here's the part that will leave you cold: At 19 years, 6 months and 25 days old, Antonelli is now the youngest driver in Formula 1 history to lead the world championship.He broke the record of Lewis Hamilton, whom he replaced at Mercedes. Hamilton first achieved the top spot in 2007 at the age of 22. Antonelli did this work at the age of three years.
Winner: Oscar Piastri mclaren
The start of the season was not exactly good for Piastri. A Accident in Australia. A mechanical failure in China. His first race of 2026 started on Sunday.
He calculated it. Piastri made a great start from third to take the lead into Turn 1, running at the front for most of the afternoon, and finished second – McLaren's first podium of the campaign.
He now sits sixth in the championship despite not spinning a single wheel in the competition until Suzuka. This is truly a remarkable situation. The pace was there. The hunger was obvious. When McLaren gets all its pieces in order, Piastri is going to be a factor in this thing. Sunday was a reminder.
Winner: Charles Leclerc | ferrari
Third place doesn't always feel like winning. For Charles Leclerc, given the circumstances, it makes sense.
Loser: George Russell mercedes
Russell started from the right place on the grid. Then, as the race started, he was no longer in the right place. He was running third when Oscar Bearman crashed, given that he had already pitted and the safety car was of no benefit to him.
Russell publicly stated that a margin of one lap would probably have resulted in victory. He is not wrong. He is not even leading the championship. Antonelli has now regained that distinction, and the intra-team dynamics at Mercedes have become more interesting in Miami.
Loser: Max Verstappen red Bull
Max Verstappen crashed out in Q2 and finished 11th at the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix – an unfamiliar place for a driver who usually cares about the circuit. In a race where strategy and starting position matter so much, this was already a significant hole to dig out of. He managed to reach 8th place, but was held off by Pierre Gasly in a long battle for 7th place.
Verstappen is now 9th in the drivers' standings – behind both Bearman and Gasly. Red Bull has 16 points after three rounds. The four-time champion has already raised the possibility of walking away from F1 at the end of the season if conditions do not improve. Whether it's a statement of frustration or an actual threat, the car is clearly not close. Miami can't come fast enough. For Red Bull, and those who enjoyed watching Verstappen actually race at the front, let's hope they figure it out.
The five-week break before Miami gives each team time to regroup. For Antonelli, it is five weeks from becoming the youngest championship leader in Formula 1 history. There are worse problems at age 19.
