George Russell frustrated by bad luck after losing F1 championship lead

Kimi Antonelli won the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday meaning he overtook team-mate Russell at the top of the F1 standings

George Russell was left frustrated by the bad luck he has recently endured after losing his Formula 1 championship lead at the Japanese Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver enjoyed the perfect start to 2026 by winning the Melbourne opener and Shanghai sprint, but team-mate Kimi Antonelli has since taken a nine-point advantage following victories at the Chinese and Japanese grands prix.

It’s not because Antonelli is that much quicker than Russell though, as he won from pole in Shanghai partly due to the Briton suffering a gearbox problem in Q3.

Antonelli then took pole again at Suzuka in another Mercedes 1-2, but that happened after a set-up change backfired for Russell who made a “massive” front wing adjustment mid-session.

The problems continued on Sunday: Antonelli dropped to sixth at race start, but inherited the lead by making his only pitstop during the lap 23 safety car after Oliver Bearman’s crash.

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Russell had made his tyre change just one lap prior and, until the intervention, looked set to battle Oscar Piastri for victory before ultimately finishing fourth for his first non-podium of 2026.

“In racing, sometimes it goes for you, sometimes it goes against you,” said Russell. “It just feels like at the moment, in the last two weekends, it's like every issue we're having, it's on my side and I'm the one sort of going through that pain.”

George Russell, Mercedes, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

Asked to explain why, he responded: “Just how it's turned out. I can't really give you more of an answer to that. It's like, sometimes people have problems in practice, we've not had a single issue in practice this whole season, I've had the problems in qualifying.

“Lando hasn't had any problems in qualifying, he's had all the problems in practice. So, it's just luck of the draw with these new cars. It's race three of 22, I'm not concerned at all with what is [going] on here and I know I've got what it takes to sort of bounce back.”

Russell isn’t concerned by Antonelli taking the championship lead ahead of round four in Miami on 1-3 May; Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were scheduled for April, but cancelled due to ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

Asked whether the title momentum has shifted, Russell said: “No, not at all. It's three races down in 22 and one lap different today, the victory would have been on my side and I'm very confident of that.

“In China, without the qualifying issue, I was three tenths ahead in sprint qualifying, so maybe I could have been on pole there and won that race.

“So, it's just how it turns out, that's racing. We're now at a four-week break, so there's no momentum to be carried. Reset and go again for the next race.”