Antonelli steams to Japanese GP victory, McLaren scores first podium
Kimi Antonelli displayed dominant pace in today's Japanese Grand Prix once he recovered from a poor start to comfortably win the race at Suzuka. Oscar Piastri led the first part of the race and still secured second for McLaren followed by Leclerc who ensured a shade of red on the podium as well.
The start of the Japanese Grand Prix was delayed by 10 minutes as the circuit's barriers required repairs after a considerable accident in the support race. When the time had finally come, everybody lined up on the grid on medium compound tyres except for Bottas who started on hards from 19th.
When the lights went out Piastri had a fantastic launch while Antonelli had a very poor one. Piastri launched into the lead quickly with Leclerc following through into second place. Russell also struggled and got passed by Norris into Turn 1 as well, leaving himself fourth. Antonelli was even worse off as he also saw Hamilton get past into 5th.
Gasly held onto 7th, followed by Lindblad, Verstappen, Ocon and Hadjar.
One lap later, Antonelli makes it past Hamilton. Russell also rapidly cleared Norris in the second lap and cruised past Leclerc on lap 3 as Ferrari's top speed really is lacking compared to the Mercedes powered cars.
After continuing pressure on the race leader, Russell's overtake on Piastri shows why the current regulations are all about power management, masking true driver performance. Having found it nearly impossible to attempt an overtake through Turn 1, Russell went for an overtake in the chicane following the high speed 130R. However, it was so easy that it was clearly due to Piastri harvesting more energy, and surely, once accelerating out of the final corner, Piastri swept back past Russell to take the race lead back after having lost it for just 5 seconds.
Two laps later Antonelli made it past Norris after the Briton lost touch of Leclerc and started reporting worsening condition of his front left tyre. Antonelli quickly went on to pressure Leclerc but found it more difficult than anticipated. When eventually passing on lap 15 the Italian nearly lost the car when accelerating out of the final corner as he spun the rears, enabling Leclerc to return to third place.
Norris was then the first to stop on lap 16, followed by Leclerc one lap later. The two maintained their relative positions, underlining there seemed to be little or no advantage to stop first as the hard tyres need a bit of time to get up to temperature.
The stops released the Mercedes cars, immediately making it clear that Antonelli had a lot of pace in hand. Their first laps in clean air saw Antonelli take 7 tenths on his teammate. The difference quickly triggered Russell to go on the radio, warning he might lose considerable time trying to extend the first stint, but then again, pitting at this stage would again put him behind Piastri.
Russell got pitted the next lap. It was a clean stop, but just seconds after coming out Bearman went off at Spoon Curve and caused a safety car. Bearman had attempted to make an overtake in the lead to this corner but misjudged the overspeed due to Colapinto harvesting. He ended up on the grass on the inside, shooting across the track and into the barrier on the other side at high speed. Bearman got out quickly but clearly had pain on his right foot. An X-ray at the medical centre later confirmed no fractures despite the 50G impact.
That was effectively great news for Antonelli, Hamilton, Verstappen, Lawson and all others who hadn't stopped yet. Russell quickly shouted "Unblievable", knowing he was again behind Piastri while holding off the pitstop a single lap would've kept him in the lead.
Now, Antonelli was first behind the safety car, followed by Piastri, Russell, Hamilton, Leclerc, Norris, Gasly, Verstappen, Lawson and Bortoleto.
After several laps trailing the safety car, the race was on again on lap 28. Antonelli stepped on the throttle right before the chicane, distancing Piastri and leaving the Australian with no chance to take the lead. Piastri held on to second but Russell behind quickly fell victim to Hamilton.
Antonelli quickly sprinted away in the following laps while Piastri, Hamilton, Russell and Leclerc continued to run within about 0.7s from one another. When Russell finally looked close enough to Hamilton to make a move before Turn 1 stick he was briefly but solidly down on power on the approach to Spoon Curve, allowing Leclerc to sweep past. A couple laps later and a close fight further down the road, Leclerc made it past his teammate. In similar fashion, Russell did the same to Hamilton two laps later, dropping Hamilton from a podium finish to 5th. Meanwhile, Lando Norris saw all of it happen, chasing that pack 1.5s behind.
Norris didn't just want to be a spectator though and pressured Hamilton into outbreaking himself at the chicane. Despite a claim that required him to give the position, clearly Norris had never been ahead or aside, so that investigation was closed without further ado. Norris did get past Hamilton one lap later but only to get re-passed on the next straight due to Norris depleting has battery too much for that overtake to happen in the first place.
On lap 50 Russell overtook Leclerc also in the chicane, but surely enough to re-passed on the straight.
In the end, Antonelli reminded everyone that when setup properly, the Mercedes still is the car to be, even though there'll surely be work going on in the coming week to try to improve their race starts. McLaren and Piastri were chuffed with that first podium after two dismal performances while Leclerc kept Ferrari in the mix.
As Russell will rue the setup mistake from Saturday and his bad luck with the safety car. At Aston Martin, Alonso managed to complete the entire race, probably the maximum Honda could hope for at their home race considering the current technical difficulties they have.
So now, due to the issues in the middle east, teams go back to their factories, working flat out before the next race in Miami on May 3.
