The China Mail - Antonelli wins in Japan to become youngest F1 championship leader

Antonelli took advantage of a mid-race safety car to leapfrog into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position and led home McLaren's Oscar Piastri by 13.722sec with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc a further 1.548sec back in third.

He whooped with delight as he crossed the line at Suzuka, telling his team "the pace was unbelievable today".

He moved up to 72 points and leads the championship by nine points after three races, building on the first grand prix win of his career two weeks ago in China.

"Of course it's still too early to think about the championship but we're on a good way," said Antonelli.

"I don't know what would have happened, what the outcome would have been without the safety car, but it definitely made my life a lot easier."

His Mercedes teammate George Russell finished fourth to drop to second in the championship standings on 63 points. Leclerc is third on 49.

Russell battled Piastri for the lead over the first half of the race but pitted just before the safety car which dropped him out of contention for the win.

Piastri secured second in his first grand prix start of the season, after crashing on his way to the grid in the opener in Australia and missing the race in China because of a technical problem.

Piastri led for the first half of the race before the safety car gave Antonelli his chance.

"It would have been really interesting to see what would have happened without that," said Piastri.

- 'A pretty good place' -

"A shame that we never got to see what would have happened, but I think for us to be disappointed at this point about finishing second is a pretty good place to be."

McLaren's world champion Lando Norris was fifth ahead of Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and Alpine's Pierre Gasly.

Red Bull's four-time world champion Max Verstappen, the winner in Japan for the past four years, was eighth after starting from 11th on the grid.

Antonelli had become the youngest pole-sitter in F1 history in China and again was at the head of the grid.

But he suffered a shocking start and was down in sixth by the first corner.

Piastri took the early lead ahead of Leclerc, with Norris, Russell and Hamilton all sweeping past Antonelli.

The young Italian had made up some of the last ground when a crash by Haas driver Ollie Bearman brought out the safety car during the pit stop window.

Piastri had already pitted but Antonelli was able to dive in for fresh tyres moments after the safety car was deployed and emerged in front of the Australian, a stroke of luck that effectively won him the race.

Bearman got out of his car unaided but was limping badly as race marshals helped him off the track.

Haas later said he had "a right knee contusion" and initial X-rays showed no fractures after hitting the barrier at high speed.

Formula One now takes an extended break until the Miami Grand Prix on May 3.

The Bahrain and Saudi Arabia races scheduled for April have been cancelled because of the war in the Middle East.

K.Leung--ThChM