Antonelli: I was very surprised that I did the best lap!

      None of the Mercedes drivers managed to reach the podium in Suzuka, but Kimi Antonelli made history by becoming the youngest driver to lead the Grand Prix and record the fastest lap.

      Kimi Antonelli (6th): "Everything turned out well! And most of all, I'm proud of the fact that today I already felt confident in the car and could attack. I was driving less confidently on Friday, things were already better on Saturday, and now I'm glad we've managed to take another step forward compared to qualifying.

      Anyway, I'm definitely looking forward to next weekend. Finally, we showed both good pace and good stability, especially on hard tires. Although I was very surprised that I drove the best lap of the race! But I was really comfortable driving, I tried to get as close as possible to the limit of the car's capabilities, attacked, and learned a lot today. This experience will be useful to me, including in Bahrain.

      When the track was clear in front of me, the pace increased, and I was able to extend the distance on Medium tires. As soon as I switched to hard tires, I could already catch up with the cars ahead, but I just didn't have enough time.

      It was a pleasure to lead for several laps and become the youngest driver in the history of Formula 1 to do so. Overall, it was a good weekend, and the track is great in Suzuka. I hope we can make further improvements and fight for higher positions than we are today."

      George Russell (5th): "The nature of today's race upset me. The first six cars finished in the order they started, but it was determined by the results of yesterday's qualifying.

      There were no special difficulties in choosing tactics, we drove the distance with a single pit stop, and since it is very difficult to overtake on this track, there were minimal opportunities to get ahead.

      We tried to do something tactically, and at the end of the first segment we made a pit stop before Leclair. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough pace to deal with the traffic, so I think that with any tactics we would still have finished no higher than 5th place.

      We are upset mainly because we were not able to optimally qualify yesterday, although the car allowed us to compete for positions in the first two starting rows. But already in Bahrain we will be able to recoup. This track is very different from the Japanese one, the weather will be much hotter, and the asphalt there is more abrasive. Everyone is going to have another test, and it's very interesting to see what the balance of power turns out to be."