Russell's Japanese Grand Prix Struggles, Antonelli Secures Win

0:00On March 30, George Russell had a rough Japanese Grand Prix, finishing forth after a pile-up of bad breaks, kept him off the podium for the first. Time this season. His Mercedes teammate, Kimi Antonelli, grabbed back-to-back wins at Suzuki, pulling clear by nearly 16 seconds. It started with set-up choices from qualifying that hurt the car's balance, then a shaky start dropped positions to Oscar Piaestry. Russell cycled to the lead before pitting on lap 21, right before a safety car came out after Ali Bearman's massive 50G crash. Team Boss Total Wolf laid it out straight, saying everything went against George, from those quality decisions to driver errors at the start and a risky. Pit call to hold off Charles LeClair. On top, a software glitch clipped his pace, letting LeClair sneak by again. Russell felt he probably could have won without all that, while Antonelli jumped ahead under the safety car and dominated. Now the 19-year-old leaves the driver's championship by nine points, the youngest ever to do so, just three races in.

1:03Wolf says Mercedes will let both drivers race flat out for the title with 19 Grand's pre-left, keep sharpening the car and see where the points land by season's end. I'm Corey with The Story. That's your F1 News Today update, AI-powered and always on.