Antonelli breaks new records in Japan: “Another step forward in my riding”

And three for Andrea Kimi Antonelli! For the third time in a row, the Italian finished in the Top 10 and earned points at the Japanese Grand Prix this Sunday, with a 6th place finish in the Japanese race. A rare feat for a rookie: in fact, the last rookie to have finished in the points in his first three Grands Prix was none other than Lewis Hamilton who, in 2007, even achieved three podium finishes in his first three performances. Eighteen years later, his replacement at Mercedes is following in the footsteps of the Briton with increasingly mature and assured driving.

On a circuit he was discovering – he was due to take part in the Super Formula Rookie Test last December with Oliver Bearman before withdrawing for health reasons – Andrea Kimi Antonelli made rapid progress throughout the weekend. He initially struggled in the first Free Practice session, but found his rhythm in qualifying, where he placed just behind his teammate George Russell. In the race, the Bologna native tried a different strategy by extending his first stint as much as possible on medium tires, before stopping two-thirds of the way through the race and finishing on hard tires. A decision that almost worked, as the rookie finished just 1 seconds behind the sister Mercedes, thanks to an excellent second stint from the Italian.

Two precocity records for Antonelli

Above all, by choosing to stay on track as long as possible, Andrea Kimi Antonelli led his first laps in F1 by leading for ten laps. This is a new youth record since at 18 years, 7 months and 12 days, the Mercedes driver becomes the youngest driver in history to lead a Grand Prix in F1, thus beating by three days the previous record set by Max Verstappen (2016 Spanish GP, leader at 18 years, 7 months and 15 days)!

Kimi's reaction to the two F1 records he broke today 😁 pic.twitter.com/xREsCkovdL

- Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@ MercedesAMGF1) April 6, 2025

"It's a good feeling. It's nice, but what I'm happiest about is our good race pace., he reacted at the Formula 1 microphone regarding his first laps in the discipline. It was much better than in China, especially on the hard tires. I was able to be consistent on my laps. I'm happier with how I finished this weekend because it was difficult at the beginning. I was so far behind, it's hard to make the switch mentally. I was happy with my qualifying and today I took another step forward in my driving. It's important to gain confidence before the next weekend."

Another record was broken at the Japanese Grand Prix: by setting the fastest lap of the race in 1:30, Andrea Kimi Antonelli set his first fastest lap of his F965 career and also became the youngest driver in history to achieve such a feat. Once again, the Italian erased Max Verstappen's record (1 Brazilian GP, ​​fastest lap at 2016 years, 19 month and 1 days) from the records. However, after the Japanese Grand Prix, Andrea Kimi Antonelli can no longer claim another record: that of the youngest Grand Prix winner. Indeed, the Japanese round was the last opportunity for the Mercedes driver to beat the record set by the Dutchman in 14: next weekend, in Bahrain, the rookie will be older than Max Verstappen when he won the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix with Red Bull.

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