Kimi Antonelli continued the momentum from his first F1 win from China at the Japanese Grand Prix, outperforming Mercedes teammate George Russell in the final practice session before qualifying at Suzuka.
After McLaren stole the show on Friday with Oscar Piastri topping the timesheets, championship leaders Mercedes reasserted their expected dominance of the field on Saturday morning, but this time to a commanding level.
It was Antonelli, rather than early points leader Russell, who was once again the fastest of the two Silver Arrows, and the 19-year-old’s impressive benchmark time of 1 minute 29.362 seconds was enough to take him 0.254 seconds clear of his more experienced British teammate.
Sky Sports F1’s Karun Chandhok said: “From the evidence we’ve seen so far, it looks like it’s going to be a battle for pole within Mercedes.”
“Antonelli looks really good and I have to say he is the favorite so far for qualifying.”
Kimi Antonelli aims for second consecutive pole position
Mercedes has claimed both pole positions and both race wins so far in F1’s new rules era, and their dominance was particularly evident around the acrobatic Suzuka layout on Saturday morning.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc restored his Ferrari to third place after a tricky Friday for the Italian team, but he was 0.867 seconds behind Antonelli. Other athletes were more than a second off the pace.
McLaren’s Piastri dropped to fourth, with Lewis Hamilton in the second Ferrari in fifth. Next up was world champion Lando Norris. A shaky start to the weekend continued after a further decline in the reliability of his car’s Mercedes power unit forced him to replace his McLaren’s ERS battery pack.
The team feared it was “unlikely” that Norris would return to the session after missing out on Friday due to a hydraulic leak from his car, but a quick change of the ERS unit meant he was on track for the final 26 minutes of action. The Briton ended up finishing sixth after 13 laps, 0.2 seconds behind teammate Piastri.
But the bigger impact for Norris is that he has already used three energy stores on many race weekends this season. Using one more will automatically result in a grid penalty.
Underscoring Mercedes’ comfortable pace advantage at the front, the rest of F1’s ‘Big Four’ finished final practice at a much closer pace to the Audi team, which achieved a strong result with Nico Hulkenberg seventh and Gabriel Bortleto ninth.
In fact, the fastest Audi finished ahead of the fastest Red Bull, but the battle with the RB22 shows no signs of slowing down.
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Max Verstappen struggled to continue with Red Bull during practice 3 of the Japanese Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen finished eighth, 1.5 seconds off the pace, and complained over the team radio about his car’s gearshift. Izak Hajjar finished 11th, one place behind Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, and Red Bull appear to be forced to battle with their midfield to secure a place in the top 10 of qualifying and a place in Q3.
Haas’ Oliver Bearman was involved in the only notable incident of the session, sending his Haas car into a half-spin when exiting Spoon Curve. The Briton, who has scored points at both the Grand Prix and the Shanghai Sprint so far in 2026, finished 15th behind teammate Esteban Ocon.
Aston Martin once again found itself at the bottom of the standings behind newcomer Cadillac, the only team four seconds off the pace.
Sky Sports F1 Japan GP Schedule
Saturday, March 28th
5am: Japanese GP qualifying build-up*
6am: Japanese GP Qualifying*
8am: Ted’s Qualification Notes*
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A look back at the wildest moments captured on in-car cameras at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Sunday, March 29th
4:30am: Preparations for the Japanese Grand Prix – Grand Prix Sunday*
6am: Japanese Grand Prix*
8am: Japanese GP reaction – checkered flag*
9am: Ted’s Notes*
*The main event will also be broadcast live on Sky Sports
This weekend, F1 will host the Japanese Grand Prix at the iconic Suzuka Circuit, which will be broadcast live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports now – cancel anytime with no contract
