It was a perfect sunny day at the Suzuka Circuit, Japan and fortune shone on Kimi Antonelli as a safety car caused by Ollie Bearman’s crash on lap 20 gifted him a comprehensive victory.
The race did not start so smoothly for the young Italian, his poor start caused by excessive wheelspin in his eagerness to get going. He found himself behind Piastri, Norris, Leclerc, Russell and Hamilton already at turn two.
From there Russell seemed to be a man on a mission, passing Leclerc and Norris in good time before getting into the task of hunting down Piastri. It was clear at this stage of the race that Antonelli was not executing in the same assured manner. More than once, he would seem to have the car in front of him within his grasp, only to power slide when coming out of the final corner to charge down the main straight. Turn one was the main opportunity for overtaking today and everyone knew it. Nailing the final corner and deploying the battery was key to progress through the field.
The other expected title protagonist before this season started was Max Verstappen, however he was to spend the vast majority of his afternoon staring at the back of former teammate Pierre Gasly’s gearbox. The Alpine driver backed up his solid performance in Qualifying to hold off the Verstappen for solid points coming home in 7th. And at some points he left the Red Bull in his dust, up to 5 seconds behind.
The Mercedes-engined teams certainly stepped up this weekend. It’s quite possible that Alpine and McLaren may have finally figured out how to get the best from their complicated power units. We wait with bated breath to see if there’s still further performance to come the next time the teams get on track in Miami in 5 week's time.
Back to the race of today – the key turning point was lap 20 when Ollie Bearman crashed heavily in to the barriers at the entry to Spoon. The cause was a huge speed differential between Bearman and the car in front, Franco Colapinto, which according to Team Principal Ayao Komatsu, was as high as 45 kmph. The difference was caused as Colapinto’s Alpine ‘clipped’ to generate energy in the battery, whilst Bearman was deploying. The track is particularly thin here and Bearman had nowhere to go but onto the grass, through several polystyrene markers and finally into the barrier. He limped away from the crash, but x-rays conducted at the circuit showed no broken bones, showcasing once again the strength of safety in modern Formula 1.
The crash brought out the safety car – just one lap after George Russell had made his pit stop to hard tyres and before Antonelli, or Hamilton had made their stops. Over the team radio, George shared his frustrations as he witnessed his team make a cheap stop and emerge into the lead on fresh tyres. A race that he had under control had been turned on its head. He now found himself spending the rest of the race battling with the two Ferraris and Oscar Piastri, all the while seeing his number 1 challenger for the word title this year cruise further and further into the distance. After this race, George will likely reflect that safety cars are just part of F1. Over the course of a season, these things tend to even themselves out and at some point, something will unexpectedly swing his way. Being just three events into a 22 event season, there is a hell of a long way to go. I can see how he would feel frustrated though. He may never again in his career be in a car that is expected to win each weekend like the current Mercedes is, we have seen how a driver of the talent of Fernando Alonso has spent two decades chasing the opportunity to be at the front. (On a side note, at least Fernando was able to finish the race today!) Geroge will not want to let this chance slip through his fingers. Perhaps this break in the schedule comes at a good time for him to get a little reset in, even this early in the season. I would not be surprised to see him come back stronger than before, with an approach of forgetting about the world championship and just trying to maximise the points he brings home from each remaining race.
The rest of the race did settle into something rather more mundane than the opening 20 laps. The two Ferraris battled hard and were evenly matched. Oscar Piastri was quick but quite clearly not quick enough to challenge Kimi Antonelli at the front. Kimi saw his chance and took it. He must be feeling on top of the world at the moment, and he is certainly on top of the world championship table.
At 19 years and 216 days, he was too young to drink the champagne on the podium at the end of the race, as the drinking age in Japan is 20, but crucially he not too young to be put in a Mercedes F1 car. He was helped by the safety car incident, but once the cards fell his way, he fully capitalised and deserved his victory in Japan.
