How Bearman's 50G crash saved Antonelli's bacon in Japan

Not for the first time in 2026, the safety car changed the game once it had entered from stage left at the Japanese Grand Prix. It wouldn't be unreasonable to suggest that, on pure performance, Kimi Antonelli had little chance of converting his pole position into a race win after a lacklustre start that had whisked him off pole and into sixth place after the opening corners. Ollie Bearman's shunt, a result of taking evasive action as Franco Colapinto began to harvest energy on the approach to Spoon, came to Antonelli's rescue.

First, Antonelli's start. He and George Russell, the Mercedes team-mates once again sharing the front row, appeared to be anchored in place at the lights and found themselves staring at the rear wings of the faster-starting McLarens and Ferraris into the opening corner. Oscar Piastri, belatedly taking to his first start of the season after a fraught start to 2026, swept into the lead over Charles Leclerc - leaving the Mercs in fourth and sixth.

"I'm a bit disappointed with how the start went," Antonelli reflected. "It's an area where I need to work a lot because it's definitely not good enough and I'm just making my life a lot harder.

"I think I dropped the clutch a bit too deep, deeper than what I should have. Tyres were also a bit colder, so I went beyond the grip that was available and just lost a lot of places."

But Bearman's "scary" crash, per team principal Ayao Komatsu, ensured that Antonelli (who hadn't been among the contingent of drivers to pit ahead of the safety car) could get a cheap stop. While the Italian teen had made up some ground on the cars ahead, the stop had come at an incredibly fortuitous time.

To begin his recovery, Antonelli reeled off a move on Lewis Hamilton on the second lap, but very much found himself ensconced in a train behind Leclerc and Lando Norris, both of whom had been passed by Russell after the Briton's own languid getaway. Norris, who was struggling for top-end speed throughout the weekend and couldn't find his way past Leclerc, soon fell prey to Antonelli, who found the Monegasque a much more difficult customer to overtake. While Antonelli looked as though he'd got the move done at the end of lap 15 with a carbon copy of his Norris pass at Turn 17, the Triangle chicane, his snap of oversteer afforded Leclerc the chance to filter past.

Leclerc took the opportunity to pit a lap later, with Piastri then following suit on the subsequent lap. Piastri had been able to gather a lead surpassing 1.7 seconds over Russell after shaking off a prolonged challenge from the senior Mercedes driver, and pitted with the aim of covering off any chance of losing out with an undercut.

Antonelli slipped to sixth at the start, as Piastri raced into the lead over Leclerc and team-mate Norris

Photo by: Mark Thompson / Getty Images

When hindered by traffic in the form of Max Verstappen, the McLaren driver's opening laps on the hard were a match for the Mercedes pair on mediums; once the four-time champion had been brushed aside, Piastri was afforded the chance to get the hammer down to reinstate his notional gap over Russell.

In that moment, Mercedes figured that going longer would only cost more time, and thus elected to bring Russell in. The Briton emerged about 1.5s behind, offering an opportunity to take victory if he could squeak past Piastri, but the timing couldn't have been any worse

Bearman, embarking on his own recovery run after being eliminated in the first stage of qualifying, had not long pitted himself and was aiming to work his way past Colapinto. The Argentine was running to a slightly different deployment strategy and was not using his battery through Turn 12; by contrast, Bearman was. According to the FIA, the closing speeds between the two had about a 45kph difference (27mph), and Colapinto had no way of anticipating the sheer gulf in speeds in time.

"I'm just glad that he didn't have a big injury. He hit his knee hard, but he's okay" Ayao Komatsu on Bearman's accident

In response, Bearman took to the grass and had no way of being able to stall his momentum. His side-on impact pinged the sensors at 50G, immediately prompting a trip to the medical centre. The Briton limped out of his car, but his check-up and x-ray showed no damage beyond a bruise to his right knee. 

"Leading up to that Turn 13, Colapinto, he was always doing something consistent," Komatsu explained in the aftermath. "It's not his fault at all, but it's just that we are deploying more through there, so even with normal laps, we had a 20km/h advantage. That's why [Bearman] wanted to go for that."

"Then he used the boost button, but then that meant speed [difference] there is 50km/h. I'm sure you saw on the onboard, the closing speed was massive, and he just misjudged it. So it's one of the things I think we talked about with this regulation, closing speed could become an issue. So unfortunately, that was one of those incidents.

"Of course, he's kicking himself, he's saying like, ‘I should have done better, no excuse’. But, you know, you look at it, that 50km/h difference in closing speed is massive. So it's a lesson, so I'm sure, you know, we talk about it in terms of our future, how we can improve, so it's part of it.

Bearman hit the wall at 50G after narrowly avoiding Colapinto

Photo by: Kym Illman / Getty Images

"I'm just glad that he didn't have a big injury. He hit his knee hard, but he's okay."

A matter for another time, but it must be noted that Bearman's crash means the topic of the difference in closing speeds has moved closer to the top of the FIA's agenda when it convenes with the teams and manufacturers over the 'spring break' to thrash out some fixes to the 2026 regulations. Qualifying will still be addressed, but there's now a legitimate concern about the racing side of the new regs - hardly a situation that F1 and the FIA had hoped for.

Misfortune for Bearman was Antonelli's gain, particularly as he'd been rapid once Leclerc and Norris had stopped and was within 2.4 seconds of Russell before the erstwhile championship leader stopped. "Unbelievable," Russell exclaimed once the safety car was called, watching the potential victory slip between his fingers. While Russell's misery was compounded by his team's call to stop one lap too soon, Piastri could also count himself incredibly unlucky.

The Australian had driven superbly well in the opening phases of the race to ward off the recovering Russell, and had all but held off the charge before the first stops. Piastri even contended earlier in the race that he could "hang onto this" if McLaren maintained track position through the stops; while the Mercedes is incredibly potent, it's not infallible in traffic. Ferrari had been able to stall out the silver cars somewhat in the opening two rounds of the season, but its defensive arsenal had been limited on the straights. With a common power unit, the McLaren had a little bit more in reserve.

That said, Leclerc had been able to keep Russell back over the final stages of the race, despite the mixed messages between himself, his own engineers, and those at Mercedes being made available in a public sphere. When Russell was told to push, he did the opposite, and thus Leclerc had to do the opposite of the information at his disposal to counter the Mercedes behind. 

There was a moment where Russell passed Leclerc at Turn 17 at the end of the 50th lap, but this was another example of drivers being goaded to consume energy through 130R to ensure they had nothing for the start-finish straight. While Leclerc had been hoping to mount an assault on Piastri later on, the pressure from Russell had kept him on the defensive. 

Piastri had fended off Russell, but could do little about the timing of Antonelli's stop under the safety car

Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images

In the reversed roles, Piastri couldn't stay close to Antonelli after the safety car. The Bologna-born racer dropped the field on the restart and eased away into an unassailable lead, one that totalled 14 seconds at the flag. McLaren's deficit to Mercedes had been masked slightly by the higher grip available from the newly resurfaced sections of track, but not enough to cover off a bit-between-his-teeth Antonelli looking to atone from his indiscretions off the line.

Although it looked unlikely with Russell in play and Piastri holding the fort at the front, Antonelli believes that the win was "probably" on with or without the safety car. The change in confidence is palpable; with the lessons of a raw but impressive debut campaign in 2025 still reasonably fresh in his mind, Antonelli has the aura of a man who feels he can - with a little more work - take on the world.

"Experience does a lot. Obviously, last year I’ve gone through a lot and it taught me massively more than what I anticipated, and for sure it’s helping so far this year," our new championship leader remarked. "Of course, there’s still a lot of work to do, but I definitely feel much more in control of the situation. The car helps, and I’m going to try to be ready and everything because it’s one of those opportunities that don’t happen every day.

"I’ve been closing the gap with [Russell]. I think still in qualifying he has the upper hand, especially when it comes to Q3. He’s always able to find that little bit of extra, which I’m working on. But in terms of race pace, I think we have a really strong base. So yeah, I feel he’s obviously a super, super strong, very complete driver. I think he showed many times last year, and that’s why it’s not going to be easy, and that’s why I need to do everything as perfect as possible."

Antonelli has so far defied the notion that 2026 will be one-way traffic, although Russell can rightly point to bad luck contributing to his loss of the title lead. What Antonelli needs next is a clean weekend from head to toe; he endured a messy sprint race in China, and a poor start in Japan. Miami, the site of his first sprint pole last year, must be a demonstration of a clinical approach if Antonelli can be taken seriously as a title contender.

Antonelli hugs engineer Pete Bonnington - a man who is no stranger to guiding a driver to a title...

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images