You have to go all the way back to the Japanese Grand Prix on March 29 for the last active stop on the F1 calendar given the races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia scheduled since, were both cancelled due to the situation in the Middle East.
Suzuka was a record-breaking occasion for Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli, who became the youngest driver to lead the world championship at the age of 19 — surpassing Lewis Hamilton.
He was also the first teenager to win back-to-back grands prix, benefitting from a mid-race safety car in Japan to finish ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
There was frustration for Antonelli’s Mercedes teammate George Russell, who felt he could have won that race without the safety car from Ollie Bearman’s horrendous crash — which came about because Bearman was flying towards a slow corner a full pelt, and swerved to avoid Franco Colapinto’s Alpine going slowly at the same point to harvest energy for battery recharge.
That incident has prompted some stern words about the safety aspects of F1’s new regulations, as you can read below.
