Kimi Antonelli has raved about the \u201cincredible feeling\u201d he experienced upon claiming pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix, building on his formidable start to the 2026 season.<\/p>\n
Just two weeks after becoming the sport\u2019s youngest-ever polesitter<\/a>, the 19-year-old repeated the feat at the Suzuka Circuit by beating his Mercedes<\/a> team mate George Russell by nearly three tenths in Q3.<\/p>\n The Briton was far from his best as he struggled with balance problems, but Antonelli<\/a> seemed to evade any such issues and ended the session with an unassailable time of 1m 28.778s, helping the Silver Arrows to lock out the front row for the third successive round.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a good session, I\u2019m happy with it,\u201d he said after Qualifying<\/a>. \u201cI think I was able to improve lap by lap. That first Q3 lap was good. Second lap was looking strong but then at Turn 11 I locked up and lost quite a bit of time so it was a shame.<\/p>\n \u201cI was a bit annoyed with that but [I got] pole position. I felt good in the car, felt good with the track, and now focusing on tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n Reflecting on the support he has enjoyed over the weekend, he explained in an earlier interview: \u201cThe fans here in Japan are pretty incredible. There’s so much passion and racing at a historic track is an incredible feeling.<\/p>\n \u201cThe track is unbelievable to drive with this kind of car plus the fans give us a little bit more of a boost when we go on track.\u201d<\/p>\n Antonelli will now be hoping to avoid small errors that have occasionally impacted his performance at times \u2013 such as his crash in FP3<\/a> at the season opener in Australia as well as a poor start and time penalty in the China Sprint \u2013 and target his second Grand Prix victory.<\/p>\n