Max Verstappen F1 record beaten by 18-year-old Mercedes star

Antonelli, Verstappen,socials — Photo: © IMAGO

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Max Verstappen F1 record beaten by 18-year-old Mercedes star

Kimi Antonelli came home P6 in Suzuka

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Tuesday 8 April 2025 12:57 Updated: 12:19

One of Max Verstappen's many Formula 1 records was taken by Kimi Antonelli at the Japanese Grand Prix last weekend.

Four-time world champion Verstappen brilliantly took a pole position-grand prix win double at the Suzuka International Circuit, to put himself within just one point of early drivers' championship leader Lando Norris.

The win was arguably one of the best of his career, fending off the two McLarens for the whole race to take a surprise victory, but some eyes were fixed a little further back, as 18-year-old rookie Antonelli put in another brilliant performance.

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Mercedes' Antonelli finished sixth in Japan, becoming the first rookie since Lewis Hamilton in 2007 to claim points in each of their first three races in the series.

Antonelli had to fend off Hamilton for large parts of the race, but eventually pulled out a huge gap over the seven-time world champion, finishing over 10 seconds ahead of the Brit in the Ferrari.

It means that Antonelli continues to sit fifth in the drivers' championship, just behind his much more experienced team-mate George Russell, and ahead of the likes of Charles Leclerc, Hamilton and Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda.

One particular part of Antonelli's race, however, meant that the Italian was able to break one of Verstappen's records, a record that has stood for nine years, becoming the youngest driver to ever lead an F1 race.

Antonelli becomes youngest race leader

One of the most impressive aspects of Antonelli's race was his ability to manage his tyres, making his medium tyres last significantly longer than all the other front runners.

It meant that when all the other drivers came into the pits for their pit stop - including Russell, Mercedes split the strategy between their two drivers, with Antonelli staying out 10 laps longer than his team-mate.

This helped him to have fresh tyres to defend from Hamilton later in the race, but it also meant that he led the Japanese GP for those laps, becoming the youngest ever race leader at the age of 18 years and 224 days.

That broke Verstappen's previous record set at the 2016 Spanish GP by four days, although Verstappen went on to win that race, meaning his record as the youngest ever F1 race winner can no longer be beaten by Antonelli.

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Max Verstappen Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Mercedes Kimi Antonelli Japanese Grand Prix