Every single driver who has led the Formula 1 world championship standings since the start of the 2025 season is a driver who had never previously been atop the points chart, and that remained true after the 2026 season's third race, the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka Circuit.
And it remained that way despite the fact that yet another new points leader has emerged.
Second-year Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli earned his second consecutive victory to overtake teammate George Russell, winner of the season opener in Melbourne, for the world championship lead.
Kimi Antonelli takes F1 points lead
Antonelli entered Sunday's 53-lap race around the 18-turn, 3.609-mile (5.808-kilometer) road course in Suzuka, Mie Prefecture, Japan trailing Russell by four points, with the difference being Russell's sprint race victory in Shanghai. The Mercedes duo finished 1-2 in the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix.
Antonelli's Japan win, coupled with Russell's disappointing fourth place finish, shot Antonelli to the top of the chart, giving him a nine-point lead through three of the 22 races on the 2026 schedule.
With Formula 1 set to have off for all of April due to the cancelations of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix, the 19-year-old Italian is set to hold the lead heading into the month of May's Miami Grand Prix.
Antonelli is the fourth first-time points leader since the start of the 2025 season alone. McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were the only two drivers who led the standings in 2025, after neither one had done so before, and Russell's 2026 season-opening victory gave him the lead for the first time in his eight-year career.
Antonelli is also the sport's youngest points leader of all-time, and what makes his rise even more interesting is the fact that you have to go back to 1982 to find the most recent instance of a driver securing his first race win and his first world championship in the same season.
He has a chance to pull off what Keke Rosberg did that year, and while 19 races (and five sprint races) remain on the calendar, his hot start to 2026 and the strength of the Mercedes car has already made it a talking point.
Russell remains the title favorite at FanDuel Sportsbook, but only slightly; he's listed at -105, ahead of Antonelli at +140.
Apple TV is set to continue its live coverage of the 2026 Formula 1 season with the Miami Grand Prix at Miami International Autodrome on Sunday, May 3.