Antonelli claims pole in Japan, Russell completes Mercedes front-row lockout

Barely two weeks after his maiden Grand Prix victory in China, Kimi Antonelli secured pole position in Japan today. George Russell ensured Mercedes will start from the front row on Sunday by taking second place. Behind the Mercedes duo, Oscar Piastri set the third-fastest time and will therefore start from P3 tomorrow.

In the Q3 session, Antonelli struck immediately during his first run, clocking a 1:28.778, a time no one was able to beat. The Italian didn’t improve on his own time during his second run, a fate also shared by his teammate George Russell. Charles Leclerc was the only driver in the top five to successfully improve his time during the second Q3 run on Saturday. The Monegasque driver qualified in fourth, just behind Oscar Piastri. This places Leclerc between the McLaren drivers on tomorrow’s grid, as Lando Norris clocked the fifth-fastest time on Saturday.

This marks Antonelli’s second consecutive pole position, following the previous Grand Prix in China where he became the youngest pole-sitter in history. For Mercedes, it is the third time in a row this season that both drivers will start from the front row on Sunday.

Weather conditions were once again very nice on Saturday. The sun shone during both the third free practice (FP3) and qualifying, with temperatures reaching around 20 degrees. Consequently, the track temperature rose to approximately 38 degrees.

During FP3, teams focused primarily on short runs, using only the C2 and C3 compounds. The third free practice was dominated by Mercedes, with Kimi Antonelli and George Russell finishing first and second. They were followed at a significant distance by Charles Leclerc in third.

On Sunday temperatures will again reach around 20 degrees, though more cloud cover is anticipated this time. This should mean that track temperatures will typically be slightly lower than they were yesterday and today.

The Pirelli Pole Position Award was presented to Antonelli by Kotozakura. The sumo wrestler reached the Ōzeki rank in 2024, when he decided to adopt the name of his grandfather, Kotozakura Masakatsu I, a legend of the sport.

Kimi Antonelli

“It feels great to take pole position today here at Suzuka. I’ve been having a lot of fun driving around such a brilliant circuit and pushing to the limit in qualifying. The car was a little snappier than it had been in FP3, so it wasn’t straightforward. We had some tyre overheating which we were dealing with too, but we were able to put together two solid laps in Q3. Thankfully our pace was strong enough to take P1.

“I am looking forward to tomorrow. The start will be key, but we are just focused on ourselves and what we can do to make sure we hold the lead into turn one. We will be working on that with Bono and my other engineers this evening so we are as ready as possible. Hopefully we can do that, get the car in some clear air, and utilise the long run pace that we showed on Friday. Let’s see what we can do.”

George Russell

“That was not a straightforward qualifying session on my side of the garage. We made a small and standard set-up adjustment after FP3 to balance out the car but it made it a lot more difficult to drive. I was struggling with oversteer and tyre overheating and was having to adjust my driving around that to find the lap time. We also had to take a good chunk of front-wing flap out of the car too which wasn’t ideal. These cars are so new that the set-up adjustment may have had a much more dramatic impact than we thought.

“With that challenge, ending the session P2 is not a bad result. Given how difficult overtaking usually is here at Suzuka, the start will be important. We’ve been working hard to improve how we get off the line and will be aiming to make sure we are the leading cars into turn one. That said, it will be a long race so there will be plenty of options.”

Dario Marrafuschi – PIRELLI MOTORSPORT DIRECTOR

The two sessions held today confirmed the data generated by the simulations carried out before the event. During the free practice session, which focused on performance runs with the two softest compounds, a performance gap of around five to six tenths emerged between the C2 and the C3. The qualifying times, achieved without preparation laps, met expectations and were faster than yesterday’s thanks to the ongoing track evolution.

As anticipated, the fastest strategies for tomorrow’s race involve a single pit stop and make use of all three compounds. The two combinations, Medium–Hard and Soft–Hard, are very close in terms of total race time, although we believe teams will favour the more conservative first option.

Using the C3 provides greater grip off the line and could offer an advantage to those who choose to exploit the distance between the grid and the first braking point to gain positions over their rivals. In this scenario, the pit window runs from lap thirteen to lap nineteen, brought forward by two laps compared with the Medium–Hard solution.

Around ten seconds slower is the final possible one‑stop strategy, which involves using the Soft and the Medium, with the tyre change between laps eighteen and twenty‑four and the need to manage the softer compound more carefully at the expense of performance.

Some outsiders might also consider bringing forward the switch from the Soft quite significantly to get out of traffic, with the aim of tackling the final phases of the race, after the middle stint on the C1, with a fresh set of C3s. They would gain an advantage before the chequered flag but would need to stop twice. A safety car could favour two‑stop strategies, although historically neutralisations are not frequent at Suzuka.

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Written by

Jarrod Partridge

Jarrod Partridge is the Co-Founder of F1 Chronicle and an FIA accredited journalist with over 30 years of experience following Formula 1. A member of the AIPS International Sports Press Association, Jarrod has covered F1 races at circuits around the world, bringing first-hand insight to every race report, driver profile, and technical analysis he writes.

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