Formula 1: Australian Oscar Piastri settles for second as Mercedes prodigy Kimi Antonelli creates history

One race start, one podium.

Life’s looking a whole lot sunnier for Australian Formula One star Oscar Piastri, but it could have been even better if not for an ill-timed safety car at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Mercedes prodigy Kimi Antonelli has become the youngest man in history to lead the driver’s championship at 19 years and 216 days old after backing up his maiden triumph in China with another in Japan to end a dominant fortnight in Asia and condemn Piastri to second.

It didn’t start well, the Aussie bursting off the line from third to take the lead.

But a cheap pitstop under the safety car with fellow Mercedes driver George Russell and Piastri having already stopped, gave the young gun all the advantage he needed to power through the second half of the Grand Prix and give the Silver Arrows three victories from three races heading into a month-long break.

While Piastri was undoubtedly disappointed, cheekily telling his team over the radio “turns out when we start these things we’re pretty good”, it’s a major improvement on his two Did Not Start results to open the season.

“It would have been really interesting to see what happened without that (safety car),” he told Sky Sports in victory lane.

“I think I could keep George behind. Just before the stops we were actually pulling away a little bit again. So, a shame that we never got see what would have happened but I think for us, at this point, to be disappointed about second is a pretty good place to be.”

Red Bull star Max Verstappen’s dour weekend continued, only managing to finish eighth behind Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.

Finally given a chance to do some racing, Piastri hit the start like a bull in a china shop, making the most of Russell’s wheel spin to pass the Englishman and Antonelli almost on the line and lead through his entire first lap of the season.

His gap was up to a second as he returned to the front straight.

Russell took a dip at the Aussie as the pair crossed the line to start lap nine, the Mercedes star surprising Piastri with a move to take the lead.

However, the Aussie, who is becoming known as a bit of an iceman, didn’t hesitate in moving back ahead of him into turn one.

Fellow McLaren driver and reigning champion Lando Norris attempted an undercut on lap 17, but the stop was a little slow, and the tactic was undone by a safety car laps later.

Haas driver Ollie Bearman’s car was left facing the wrong way, and the young Englishman, who has scored all of the team’s points through two rounds, was left struggling with a limp after going too fast out of turn 13 on lap 22.

He ran out of road as he tried to avoid rear-ending Franco Colapinto, spearing through the gravel and into the wall close to top speed and with Haas reporting a 50g crash.

The scary incident came 20 seconds too late for Russell, who had just finished his pit stop and remained behind Piastri.

His teammate was more fortunate as he took the cheap stop behind the safety car and found himself in the lead.

The Italian teen, who became the second-youngest Grand Prix winner in China, put his foot down, opening a three-second gap as Piastri fended off Lewis Hamilton behind him.

Piastri was able to burn off the seven-time world champion, but the damage was done as he had to settle for second.

LeClerc claimed the final step on the podium with a gutsy overtake on lap 42, nearly colliding with his Ferrari teammate Hamilton before holding off a fast-finishing Russell.