Formula One 2026: Japanese Grand Prix race updates – live
Key events
You may have read about the exchange between Verstappen and a journalist in his press conference earlier this week, with the former refusing to commence until the latter had departed the room.
Said journalist was Giles Richards and, loathe as he is to be the story, rather than reporting on it, he’s penned this on the matter.
News has come through that there will be a ten-minute delay to the start of the race due to damage to the barriers in one of the support races.
New start time: 2.10pm local/6.10am GMT/4.10pm AEDT
Preseason expectations that the Mercedes would be the class of the field in 2026 and been pretty soundly validated across the opening two rounds, with Russell leading the championship standings from Antonelli by four points thanks to his sprint victory in China.
And Russell he told Giles Richards this week, the lumps he took when he first arrived in F1, finishing up near the back in a troublesome Williams, have helped turn him into the title favourite he is today.
Here’s Giles Richards’ full report on qualifying from Suzuka.
Preamble
Joey Lynch
Howdy all, it’s ya boi Joey Lynch, and welcome to the Guardian’s continued coverage of the 2026 Formula One world championship – today bringing you all the action from the Japanese Grand Prix, under the cherry blossoms at the legendary Suzuka Circuit.
For the third-race in a row in 2026, we’ll have an all-Mercedes front row for today’s race and, also for the second-race in a row, it’ll be phenom Kimi Antonelli starting from pole position: the young Italian pushing teammate George Russell into second on the grid by 0.298 seconds in qualifying yesterday.
The last four races at Suzuka have all been won by the pole-sitter, which will serve as a strong omen for the 19-year-old as he looks to back up his maiden F1 win in China a fortnight ago – one in which he didn’t quite go coast-to-coast from pole but in which he rarely looked troubled as he cruised to victory.
The man that claimed those previous four wins, however, didn’t have as good a day of things yesterday: Red Bull’s Max Verstappen failing to qualify for Q3 and set to start from P11 today.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri will start from third – the Australian still yet to complete a race lap this season after crashing during a recon lap at Albert Park and being sunk by mechanical issues in Shanghai – while the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc will join him on the second-row.
It’ll be papaya and red on the third row, too, with defending world champion Lando Norris in fifth and Lewis Hamilton – fresh off claiming his first podium for the prancing pony in China – in sixth.
Lights go out at 2pm local/6am GMT/4pm AEDT
