Kimi Antonelli flies to victory in Japan and takes World Championship lead with DHL Fastest Lap

Mercedes were once again the guys to beat in Japan. Kimi Antonelli secured his second pole position by a good margin, beating teammate George Russell by three-tenths of a second but then went on to bungle the start of the race.

He didn't place his fingers on the clutch properly, giving more bite than was needed, which caused bad wheel spin and saw him drop down the field to sixth place. Still, he had fought his way back up to fourth by lap 12 and regained the lead when the top three pitted.

On lap 22, Oliver Bearman's 50-G crash brought out the safety car, which Antonelli used to his advantage to make his only pit stop of the race. That saved him over ten seconds and enabled him to rejoin the race out in front. After the restart, Antonelli was literally flying around the Suzuka International Racing Course, which led to a whole series of fastest laps, one after the other. He finally set the DHL Fastest Lap on lap 49 in a time of 1:32.432 minutes.

Antonelli was able to secure his second consecutive victory of the season with a lead of over 13 seconds on the driver in second place, making Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff very proud, but the boss soon brought him back down to earth with a joke on prime-time Austrian television: "That was a terrific race after fluffing the start, but I think we're going to have to send him back to driving school so that he can practice using the clutch properly!"

This victory now sees the 19-year-old ace at the head of the World Championship tables, making him the youngest driver to lead the Formula 1 standings since records began. However, he is not one to speculate on taking the World Championship title just yet as he said: "It feels pretty good, but it's too early to think about it."