{"id":571448,"date":"2026-03-29T05:39:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T05:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/571448\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T05:39:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T05:39:13","slug":"f1-japanese-gp-live-piastri-leads-russell-after-bad-start-for-mercedes-duo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/571448\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 Japanese GP LIVE: Piastri leads Russell after bad start for Mercedes duo"},"content":{"rendered":"

KEY MOMENTSThe 2026 Japanese Grand Prix beginsRace was delayed by 10 minutes due to support series crashAndrea Kimi Antonelli starts from poleMax Verstappen 11th after Q2 exit<\/p>\n

The third round of the 2026 Formula 1 season continues on Sunday 29 March with the 53-lap Japanese Grand Prix from Suzuka.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The iconic Suzuka circuit acts as the venue for Formula 1’s Japanese Grand Prix, as Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli starts on pole for the second time this season.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The 19-year-old Italian broke his duck last time out in China when he claimed a maiden pole, which he converted into a first grand prix victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He will be looking to do the same after a qualifying in which Mercedes stretched its legs, with Antonelli’s team-mate George Russell slotting into second after a tricky session.\u00a0<\/p>\n

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri led the best-of-the-rest charge behind the works Mercedes team, as the Woking outfit’s car appears to be working much better at Suzuka than in previous rounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Piastri was able to fend off the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, who will start fourth, while Lando Norris managed fifth in the sister McLaren despite the reigning world champion struggling with technical issues all weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton says Ferrari is “miles and miles away”<\/a> from Mercedes this weekend, as he goes from sixth on the grid with much tougher task in matching his podium from China.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pierre Gasly put the Alpine seventh on the grid to give the Enstone team top honours in a tight midfield race, while Isack Hadjar was eighth for Red Bull after team-mate Max Verstappen fell out of Q2 in 11th spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gabriel Bortoleto was ninth for Audi, while Arvid Lindblad sneaked his Racing Bull into the top 10 with a lap in Q2 that dumped Verstappen out of the mix.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Aston Martin brings up the rear of the field for engine supplier Honda’s home grand prix, as the Japanese marque will be hoping its vibration countermeasures allows both cars to get to the chequered flag.<\/p>\n

The 2026 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix begins at 6am BST.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KEY MOMENTSThe 2026 Japanese Grand Prix beginsRace was delayed by 10 minutes due to support series crashAndrea Kimi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-571448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}