Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli overcame a slow start to record his second straight win on Sunday at the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka, Japan.

Antonelli dropped to sixth place before steadily working his way into contention and benefiting from a safety car that was deployed due to a crash for Haas’ Ollie Bearman. That safety car allowed the 19-year-old Italian to pit and re-emerge in first place.

Antonelli, who recorded his maiden win two weeks ago in China, became the youngest-ever person to lead the drivers’ standings after finishing the race in 1 hour, 28 minutes and 3.403 seconds.

“It’s been a big step,” said Antonelli, whose 72 points in the driver’s standings are nine more than teammate George Russell.

“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. Of course there’s still a lot of work to do, but I definitely feel much more in control of the situation.”

Antonelli finished 13.722 seconds ahead of second place Oscar Piastri of McLaren and 15.270 seconds in front of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Russell finished in fourth place, 15.754 seconds behind Antonelli.

Russell trailed then-leader Piastri before the safety car issue, giving the latter the chance to make a pit stop and pushing Mercedes’ hand to make the former use the pit as well. This move effectively handed Antontelli the victory on Lap 22.

“I think obviously we were very lucky with (the) safety car, but on the medium (tire), we were really strong once I got some free air, and then on the hard (tire) the pace was just incredible,” Antonelli said. “I don’t know what would have happened, how the outcome would have been, without the safety car, but yeah, it definitely made my life a lot easier.”

–Field Level Media