{"id":571593,"date":"2026-03-29T07:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T07:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/571593\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T07:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T07:23:09","slug":"aussie-oscar-piastri-starts-in-third-with-mercedes-teen-prodigy-on-pole-again-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/571593\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie Oscar Piastri starts in third with Mercedes teen prodigy on pole again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After weeks of crashes, mechanical problems and \u201cwatching F1 from the sidelines\u201d, Oscar Piastri has finally started and completed a 2026 race, finishing second at the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, teenager Kimi Antonelli has become the youngest driver in Formula 1 history to lead a world championship, winning the Suzuka race by eight seconds after a dominant drive, with Ferrari Charles Leclerc nabbing their place. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Oscar Piastri has finished second at the Japanese Grand Prix \" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/75aa1f5b5e77adfd17a72d25a92604c2eeb1eece.jpeg\"  class=\"sc-d34e428-1 ldCIuB\"\/>Oscar Piastri has finished second at the Japanese Grand Prix AP<\/p>\n<p>Piastri drove brilliantly with a stunning opening lap, overtaking from third place on the grid to snatch the lead from a pole sitting Antonelli and fellow Mercedes driver George Russell.<\/p>\n<p>The Australian lead for 18 laps and pitted early, followed by George Russell who pitted on lap 21. However, a monster crash from Oliver Bearman on lap 22 triggered a yellow flag and safety car, disrupting pitstop strategies and allowing Antonelli to retake the lead. <\/p>\n<p>Despite the chaos, crashes and safety car, Piastri managed to hold on to second place, defending against a resurging Ferrari to nab a podium. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWow it turns out when we start these things, we\u2019re pretty good,\u201d Piastri joked over the radio. \u201cWell done everybody, that was a great weekend.. we deserve that so thank you, let\u2019s find some more pace.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After weeks of crashes, mechanical problems and \u201cwatching F1 from the sidelines\u201d, Oscar Piastri has finally started and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-571593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571593","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=571593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}