2026 Japanese Grand Prix Race Review

Linus O'Howell
2 days ago
4 min read

Antonelli Takes Advantage to Take Championship Lead

Despite having a torrid start, a perfectly-timed Safety Car opened the door for Andrea Kimi Antonelli to waltz away to his second-straight victory, making the Italian the youngest Championship leader in Formula 1 history! An unlucky Oscar Piastri had to settle for second in his first Grand Prix of the season, whilst Charles Leclerc rounded out a Mercedes-McLaren-Ferrari Podium!

The Biggest Talking Points

As the five red lights went out, Andrea Kimi Antonelli got another awful start, dropping all the way down to 6th as Oscar Piastri took the lead, ahead of Charles Leclerc, whilst Lando Norris slotted into third after pulling off a great move around the outside of George Russell! Mercedes really need to work on their starts, because they’ve not been good at any track this season! Anyway, Mercedes then decided to deploy “boost mode” as George shot back past both Lando and Charles, but it wasn’t as easy for Kimi as he got stuck behind Norris’ McLaren (after successfully clearing Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari)! Further back in the pack, we’re being treated to an epic battle between Arvid Lindblad and Isack Hadjar, with 2026’s Rookie of the Year defending hard against 2025’s Rookie of the Year! Oscar Piastri was then starting to look a bit comfortable out in front, resulting in him pitting to cover off any threat of a George Russell undercut! When Russell pit, he remained behind the McLaren driver, but this proved to be the worst possible time to pit as almost immediately, a Safety Car was brought out due to a horrible crash for Oliver Bearman! Firstly, thankfully Ollie is okay, but these sorts of incidents cannot happen; it’s incredibly dangerous! Secondly, all of this fell perfectly into the hands of Kimi Antonelli, with the young Italian able to jump in front of a number of drivers to take the lead at the midway stage of the Race!

When the Safety Car dived into the pits, it was Antonelli who led from Piastri, Russell, and Hamilton, with Lewis making an early move on George due to Ferrari’s rapid restart ability! Max Verstappen, who we haven’t even spoken about yet, was putting an awful lot of pressure on Pierre Gasly, whilst Isack Hadjar was still squabbling hard after losing multiple places due to the timing of the SC! More issues then appeared for Russell, as he dropped behind the other Ferrari of Leclerc, whilst eventually, Charles would clear Lewis Hamilton for P3 after a pretty tight battle! At the back of the field, Lance Stroll was forced to retire with some sort of water leak, but incredibly, Fernando Alonso would finish this Race in the other Aston Martin! Anyway, both George Russell and Lando Norris would also clear Hamilton’s Ferrari, but the same couldn’t be said when Russell got onto the back of Leclerc’s Ferrari, with Charles eventually winning the battle! Verstappen also chased Gasly right to the finish line, but the Frenchman stood tall!

The Standout Drives in the Race

I’ve given out two 10’s for the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix, and the first one is actually for Oscar Piastri! Oscar was faultless today; he took the lead at the start and commanded the field for the first part of the Race, only for a badly-timed Safety Car to take him out of a winning position! Also, even more credit deserves to go to Piastri given the fact that this was his first Grand Prix in these new era of cars! The other driver I’ve given out maximum points to is Pierre Gasly, and whilst he didn’t quite achieve it in China a fortnight ago, finishing best of the rest is more than deserving of this token! Pierre defended really well against Max Verstappen, with him not being screwed over by the Safety Car (this time around)! Whilst Andrea Kimi Antonelli won this Race, his start plus the fortunate SC means I can’t quite give him a perfect grade, whilst Charles Leclerc deserves a lot of praise for getting onto the Podium, ahead of George Russell! Also, shoutout to both Liam Lawson and Esteban Ocon for rounding out the points scorers!

Drivers Who Had a Shocker

I once again haven’t given any driver a 1 for this Race, and I guess that’s simply because as of right now, the two Aston Martin and Cadillac drivers aren’t doing anything particularly wrong, their car is just insanely slow! Now, Oliver Bearman did have a big accident, but I really can’t be too harsh on him as the incident almost looks unavoidable! Otherwise, the only other person I want to mention is Franco Colapinto, as his pace compared to his teammate is shockingly bad! Oh, and Alex Albon finished last due to pitting a ridiculous amount of times, so that’s not really on him!