The W17 is the fastest car in F1 in qualifying, in race trim, on slow circuits, on fast ones. Andrea Kimi Antonelli took pole at Suzuka by 0.241s from George Russell , took the fastest lap on lap 49, and won lights-to-flag. Two wins from three rounds in his second season.
The race
Antonelli converted pole cleanly, opened a 4-second gap by lap 10 and controlled the race from there. The surprise was behind him: Oscar Piastri , starting third, undercut Russell during the first round of stops and held him out for the entire second stint to take P2. McLaren’s first podium of the year, and a result that probably keeps Oscar Piastri sane after two ugly weekends.
Charles Leclerc finished third from fourth on the grid - Ferrari’s race-pace deficit to Mercedes is real but smaller here than it was in Shanghai. George Russell recovered from the undercut loss to P4, his worst finish of the season. Lando Norris took P5 and his first points of 2026 - a result that gets less embarrassing the further McLaren is from where the testing data suggested they would be.
The Verstappen question
P8, two laps down on Antonelli when the chequer dropped. Max Verstappen qualified P11. The RB22 had a clean weekend - no PU issues, no incidents - and the car was eighth-fastest on race pace. Helmut Marko’s post-race comments mentioned the word struggling four times in the same paragraph. Red Bull are in trouble, and it isn’t temporary.
The DNFs
- Lance Stroll - lap 14, hydraulics again, the third Aston DNF in three rounds
- Oliver Bearman - lap 36, contact with Alexander Albon at Spoon Curve - one of Haas’s first rounds without a finish since the start of last season
The championship
Constructors: Mercedes 123, Ferrari 77, McLaren 38, Haas 16, Red Bull 16. Miami in five weeks is another sprint weekend and the first long-haul break of the season.