Mercedes
Antonelli made it back-to-back Grand Prix wins with victory in Japan, but he had to work hard at Suzuka after a poor getaway dropped him to sixth. He climbed back through the field, running second and was closing in on his team mate when Russell pitted. That handed Antonelli the lead and the next lap, the Safety Car came out which gave the Italian a cheap stop, enabling him to emerge still in the lead. It might have been lucky, but from there Antonelli was in imperious form, driving away from the field to win by nearly 14 seconds.
As for Russell, a bad getaway dropped him backwards too. He climbed back to second, but could not find a way past Piastri. Once the McLaren man pitted, Mercedes brought Russell in to avoid too much of an undercut, but the timing of the Safety Car meant he came out behind both Antonelli and Piastri. He then lost out to the Ferraris at the restart, but was able to at least pick off Hamilton before an entertaining multi-lap fight with Leclerc for the final podium spot.
Kimi Antonelli, 1st
“It feels great to get my second win! I made a bad start from pole and was kicking myself that we lost so many positions. When we were in free air on the Medium tyre though, I was able to improve my pace quite a lot. We were fortunate with the timing of the Safety Car and that put us in the lead; it made my life a lot easier! Who knows what would have happened without that, but I felt like we had the speed today to challenge for the win without it.
“This is the best way to head into this mini break in the season. I am going to enjoy the moment but use the time well to work on where I can improve. As a team, and despite winning the first three races, we know we need to keep raising our game too. We had a real battle today and we know that it’s not going to be easy to keep up this run of form. We’re looking forward to using the time ahead of Miami well and hopefully putting ourselves in a strong position once the season resumes.”
George Russell, 4th
“We’ve had a lot of bad luck this weekend and that is unfortunate as we were definitely in the fight for the win today. After a difficult start, we’d managed to get ourselves back to P2 but stopped just one lap before the safety car was deployed. That changed the complexion of the race and unfortunately, after taking the restart in P3, we lost two more positions as a result firstly of hitting the harvesting limit and then an unexpected superclip. It was pretty frustrating but that’s the way racing goes sometimes.
“It’s clear from this weekend that our competitors are beginning to optimise their cars much more now. We have enjoyed a great start to the season, but our rivals are hot on our heels as we saw today. The upcoming gap in the calendar will also give everyone a chance to develop further so we know that, once we’re back on track in Miami, we are in for a proper fight.”
Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“We had an exciting race today with plenty of overtaking which hasn’t always been the case here at Suzuka. It’s a new way of racing where you have to think strategically in order to both pass and then make sure it sticks. It’s a great challenge for both the drivers and the teams and it makes the race very unpredictable.
“Sometimes you need the luck to go your way in racing and that was the case with Kimi today. He lost positions at the start but was able to get them back with a fortunately timed safety car. Whilst that was helpful to him, his pace in the second half of the race showed what he was capable of. George was on the flip side of that equation and lost out having pitted just one lap before the safety car came out. He then lost more positions, firstly on the restart as he hit the harvesting limit and was low on deployment and then secondly with an unexpected superclip. He fought hard to get back to P4, but he’s certainly had more than his share of bad luck this weekend.”
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
“Well done to Kimi on his second win. He had really strong pace and, whilst he benefited from the safety car to put him into the lead, he was able to comfortably control the race once he was in that position.
“Kimi’s fortune was George’s misfortune. Had we stopped George a lap later, he would have retained the lead for the restart. As it happened, he dropped to P3 and lost a further place to Lewis when he hit the harvesting limit too early in the lap and had insufficient battery for the restart. He then had another frustrating issue where a bug in the software code, triggered by a button press and a gear shift at the same time, caused the power unit to go into superclip and charge the battery which allowed Charles to pass. He battled back to P4 but it was a frustrating afternoon for George.
“Clearly there is a lot that we need to work on and understand in the next few weeks. We’ve made a great start to the season, but our competitors are closing in. Happily, we have several areas of improvement and we will make the maximum use of the gap in the calendar to develop in the places where we are not strong enough.”
