Kimi Antonelli wins Japanese Grand Prix ahead of Oscar Piastri after safety car turnaround

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A second consecutive Grand Prix win in Suzuka for Kimi Antonelli, as Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc followed behind.

With Mercedes starting on the front row yet again, few would have predicted both the McLarens and one of the Ferraris to take up the top three spots in the first lap.

Oscar Piastri, in his season debut, managed to go from P3 to P1 with an excellent start, with Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris right behind him to break the Mercedes dominance early on.

Kimi Antonelli, who fell all the way to P6 in the first lap, quickly got to work, passing Lewis Hamilton right at the start of the second lap.

Max Verstappen, who started 11th, managed to get to P9 pretty quickly, even passing his teammate, Isack Hadjar.

George Russell quickly managed to pass reigning champion Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc in the third and fourth laps to take P2, earning back his lost place.

It wouldn’t be long till Russell managed to pass Piastri, but he would lose the lead back to Piastri within seconds of the ninth lap.

Antonelli managed to pass Norris as well, only to enter a battle with Leclerc for P3. After briefly taking the lead, a mistake from Antonelli led to Leclerc taking the spot back.

Down the pack, Pierre Gasly managed to hold a significant lead over Verstappen, who managed to reach P8 by lap 15.

Norris chose to enter the pit at lap 16 to change to hard tyres, falling back to P9 upon exiting. This allowed Lewis Hamilton to begin chasing Kimi Antonelli.

Leclerc switching to hard tyres allowed Antonelli and Leclerc to move up, with Piastri doing the same as race leader, giving George Russell the chance to take the race lead.

However, this strategy appeared to backfire, as Oliver Bearman suffered a hard crash that seemed to injure him, leading to a yellow flag and allowing all remaining drivers to change from medium to hard tyres.

Upon the safety lap ending, Russell, who was unhappy with Mercedes’ pit strategy, got passed by his former teammate, allowing Lewis Hamilton to enter P3 heading into lap 28.

Leclerc, Norris, Gasly, Verstappen, Liam Lawson, and Esteban Ocon completed the rest of the top 10. Plagued by issues, Lance Stroll was called in so Aston Martin could retire the car early, failing their goal to finish the race.

Antonelli would manage to create a near-four-second gap between himself and Piastri. In the other Mercedes, a deployment issue for Russell allowed Leclerc to pass him for P4 around lap 38.

A close exchange between Leclerc and Hamilton almost ended in disaster, but Leclerc managed to pass his Ferrari teammate to get up to P3. Russell took advantage of Hamilton’s struggles to move back into P4.

Charles Leclerc almost lost P3 to George Russell, but gained the place back quickly. Two cars behind, the same happened between Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris in the battle for P5. Norris ultimately earned P5 for himself.

Kimi Antonelli wins the Japanese Grand Prix!

He's the first teenager EVER to win multiple races

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In the end, Kimi Antonelli comfortably led the second half of the race to win the Japanese Grand Prix, with Oscar Piastri over 10 seconds behind him.

Leclerc secured the final podium place ahead of Russell, with Norris, Hamilton, Gasly, Verstappen, Lawson, and Ocon securing points.

Hulkenberg, Hadjar, Bortoleto, Lindbland, Sainz, Colapinto, Perez, Alonso, Bottas, and Albon completed the pack of finishing drivers.