A handful of Cyrk F1 statistics after the 2026 Japanese GP

The 2026 Japanese GP race brought many interesting facts and statistics regarding drivers, teams, engines, lap times, and grandstand attendance. Details in the F1 race summary from the “A handful of F1 Circus statistics” series after the 2026 Japanese GP.

Read more Three-team duel and Antonelli’s victory in the 2026 Japanese GP

Achievements and records of drivers who finished on the podium

Kimi Antonelli won an F1 race for the second time in his career.

The previous F1 driver to achieve his first two victories in two consecutive races was Charles Leclerc in 2019.

Antonelli is the only driver in F1 history to win two races as a teenager.

Antonelli secured Pole Position for the second time in his career.

The previous driver to secure his first two career Pole Positions in two consecutive race weekends was Lewis Hamilton in 2007.

Antonelli secured the 50th Pole Position for Italian drivers in F1 history.

Antonelli set the fastest lap in a race for the fifth time in his career.

Antonelli achieved a hat-trick for the second time in his career: Pole Position, victory, and the fastest lap in the race.

No driver before Antonelli had achieved two hat-tricks on the occasion of their first two victories.

Antonelli leads the F1 general classification for the first time in his career.

Antonelli became the youngest leader of the general classification in history, significantly improving Hamilton’s record. The top of the list below:

Youngest drivers to lead the F1 general classification:

1. Kimi Antonelli – 19 years 7 months and 4 days
2. Lewis Hamilton – 22 years 4 months and 6 days
3. Bruce McLaren – 22 years 5 months and 8 days
4. Sebastian Vettel – 23 years 4 months and 11 days

1/2#F1PL pic.twitter.com/RmWLHB5iMp

— Karol from CyrkF1 (@Karol_CyrkF1) March 29, 2026

The previous Italian to lead the F1 general classification was Giancarlo Fisichella at the start of the 2005 season.

Antonelli recorded his sixth career podium.

Oscar Piastri recorded his 27th career podium.

Piastri finished his last three races in second position.

For Piastri, this was formally his first race of the season, as he did not start the previous ones.

Charles Leclerc recorded his 52nd career podium.

Leclerc has achieved as many podium finishes for Ferrari as Vettel and Raikkonen.

Leclerc has finished the last five Japanese GP races only in third or fourth position.

Leclerc has always taken fourth place in qualifying this year.

Achievements of other drivers

George Russell recorded career-best results in the Japanese GP in qualifying (second place) and in the race (fourth place). Until now, his best results were fifth positions.

Lando Norris finished the last four qualifying sessions and races at the Suzuka circuit in TOP5 positions.

Lewis Hamilton always advances to Q3 in qualifying at tracks in Japan (Fuji and Suzuka) – 18/18 attempts.

In 2026, Hamilton finished an F1 race at the Suzuka circuit for the first time and took an even position (6). Previously, the Briton retired in 2013 due to a failure, and in the others, he scored points by taking only odd positions: 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9.

Pierre Gasly, by taking seventh place in qualifying and the race, equaled his career-best achievements in the Japanese GP.

Max Verstappen ended a streak of four Pole Positions and four victories in Japanese GP races by taking eleventh place in qualifying and eighth in the race.

Eighth place in the race is by far Verstappen’s worst result in the Japanese GP for Red Bull. He finished previous races on the podium, and once failed to finish due to car damage.

When Max Verstappen finishes the Japanese GP, he scores points.

Verstappen has lost to his teammate in qualifying twice this season. That is more than in the two entire previous seasons combined.

Liam Lawson scored his first career Japanese GP points in his third attempt.

Esteban Ocon scored his first point this season.

Arvid Lindblad beat his teammate in qualifying for the first time in his career.

Carlos Sainz took 16th place in qualifying – this is his worst career result in the Japanese GP.

Fernando Alonso’s results returned to the levels of the worst times of the McLaren-Honda team, when 11 teams previously competed in Formula 1. The Spaniard took 21st place in qualifying in Japan. The last time he was that far back in qualifying was for the 2016 Malaysian GP.

Alex Albon has participated in the Japanese GP six times. Twice he advanced to Q3 in qualifying and later scored points in the race. Four times he finished qualifying in earlier segments and then did not score points.

Lance Stroll, as an Aston Martin driver (2022 – 2026 seasons), always drops out in Q1 in qualifying and does not score points in the Japanese GP.

Statistics regarding teams and engines

Mercedes recorded its 134th victory in Formula 1, including its seventh in the Japanese GP.

Mercedes recorded its 146th Pole Position in Formula 1, including its sixth for the Japanese GP.

Mercedes won the Japanese GP after a seven-year break, and qualifying after an eight-year break.

Read more Analysis of qualifying before the 2026 Japanese GP

Mercedes occupied the entire front row on the F1 race start for the 85th time in its history.

Mercedes moved up to third place in the historical table of F1 podium finishes. Together with Williams, they have achieved 315 each. More podiums than them have been achieved by Ferrari (839) and McLaren (559).

The last four years have seen very good results for McLaren in the Japanese GP. In qualifying, their drivers are always in the TOP6, and in races in the TOP8. Over these four years, they have achieved five podium finishes, but they have not won either qualifying or the race.

Both McLaren drivers advanced to Q3 in qualifying for the 31st consecutive time. This is the best result in the history of this team (the division of qualifying into three segments was introduced in 2006).

The Ferrari team has not won the Japanese GP (Suzuka and Fuji tracks) since 2004 and Michael Schumacher’s triumph. Schumi is the record holder of the Suzuka circuit in terms of the number of victories, podium finishes, Pole Positions, fastest laps, and laps led.

Red Bull recorded its worst performance in the Japanese GP since 2015.

The Red Bull team achieves its greatest successes in Formula 1 at the Suzuka circuit in Japan. They have won eight times, achieved 18 podium finishes, four 1-2 finishes, and nine Pole Positions. In each of these categories, these are Red Bull’s best results on a single track.

For the first time in F1 history, both Audi drivers finished the race.

The team based in Hinwil, Switzerland (Sauber, Alfa Romeo, Kick Sauber, Audi) last scored points in the Japanese GP in 2013.

Gabriel Bortoleto advanced to Q3. This is the best qualifying performance in the Japanese GP for the Hinwil-based team since 2013, when Nico Hulkenberg also advanced to the final segment.

An Aston Martin driver finished an F1 race for the first time this season.

Other statistical trivia after the 2026 Japanese GP

The 2026 Japanese GP was the 36th Formula 1 race at the Suzuka circuit. It was also the 40th F1 Japanese GP race (four were held at the Fuji circuit).

Since 2012, Japanese GP races have been won only by Red Bull drivers (six times) and Mercedes drivers (seven times).

20 out of 36 Japanese GP races at the Suzuka circuit were won by drivers starting from Pole Position, and 11 times by drivers starting from the second spot. Only five times has someone from outside the front row won.

The demanding Suzuka circuit favors the dominance of one team, as as many as 17 times (out of 36 races), drivers from the same team lined up on the front row.

For the 17th time in F1 history, one team won the first three races of a given season. This team always finished the season with at least one championship title, and most often with two.

For the first time in the 2026 season, a full set of 22 cars lined up on the start. The last time there were that many cars on the starting grid was in the 2016 Abu Dhabi GP.

For the first time since 1952, Italian drivers won F1 and MotoGP races on the same day, and are also leading the general classifications. In MotoGP, Marco Bezzecchi has been dominating at the start of this season.

Lap times, top speed, and pit stops in the 2026 Japanese GP

Before the 2026 F1 race, the surface was replaced on 2/3 of the track’s length. The new surface is very smooth and gentler on tires, and its replacement meant that it is possible to drive faster on the track. Hence the competitive lap times. Cars from this season should lose the most to last year’s on this type of track, and those losses were quite small.

Kimi Antonelli won qualifying for the 2026 Japanese GP with a time of 1:28.778. This is a result 1.795 seconds slower compared to the Suzuka circuit record, which since 2025 has belonged to Max Verstappen – 1:26.983.

Kimi Antonelli achieved the fastest lap in the race. The Italian set a time of 1:32.432 on the 49th lap of the race. Antonelli’s result is 1.467 seconds slower than the official Suzuka record, which since 2025 has been 1:30.965, also set by Antonelli.

Max Verstappen achieved the highest top speed during the race. The Dutchman recorded 346.5 km/h at the speed trap at the end of the second sector. A year ago, Hulkenberg was the fastest at the same spot – 311.7 km/h. This year’s top speeds were probably record-breaking in the entire history of the Suzuka circuit due to the very good acceleration of the new cars. It is also worth adding that historically at the Suzuka circuit, the highest top speeds (just under 330 km/h in 2025) were achieved before turn one, but there is no measurement point there. This year, according to telemetry data provided by F1, Hulkenberg was the fastest – 350 km/h.

The fastest pit stop during the 2026 Japanese GP was performed by Ferrari mechanics. On the 22nd lap, they changed a set of wheels on Lewis Hamilton’s car in 2.00 seconds. This is the fastest pit stop this season. The record for all of Formula 1 remains the pit stop with Lando Norris during the 2023 Qatar GP, set by McLaren – 1.80 seconds.

Attendance at the 2026 Japanese GP

For a reason incomprehensible to me, attendance data was not boasted about during the television broadcast, even though it was the best at the Suzuka circuit in twenty years. Very large increases were also recorded compared to the previous year. In 2026, attendance at the Japanese GP was: 75,000 fans on Friday, 110,000 fans on Saturday, and 130,000 fans on Sunday. This means that the weekend attendance totaled 315,000 fans. Japan does not count fans who were at the track on Thursday in the weekend data. Information about attendance comes from the Japanese service F1Sokuho, which published information on its account on the X service – based on official data posted at the track by the organizer.

Attendance in 2026 is significantly better than in 2025, when the weekend total was 266,000 fans. In 2026, a significant improvement was recorded every day. Very importantly, in 2025, Yuki Tsunoda competed in Formula 1, making his debut for the Red Bull team that weekend, which was a major event. In 2026, there is no driver from Japan on the grid, yet interest from fans has increased significantly. In 2026, new grandstands were likely opened at the track after modernization, but I am not 100% sure here. I saw such information a few weeks ago on the X service, but I did not save the link to the source.

Attendance in 2026 was the best since 2006, which was the true peak of F1 popularity in Japan, driven by Honda and Toyota, as well as local drivers. Back then, there were 361,000 fans over the whole weekend, including 161,000 on Sunday. Currently, the Suzuka circuit does not have such large grandstands; the result for a single day is impossible to improve. I recommend a very detailed summary of attendance data for the Japanese GP at the Suzuka circuit from 1987 – 2017, which is available under this link in my archival article. Below in the table are detailed data for recent seasons.

Statistical summaries of previous Formula 1 races and more can be found under the tag Statistics.

Read more A handful of F1 Circus statistics after the 2026 Chinese GP