Antonelli concedes he needs ‘to raise game’ after frustrating race start in Japan Kimi Antonelli has identified the main area to work on following his victory at the Japanese Grand Prix. Despite winning in Japan by a considerable margin, Kimi Antonelli has admitted that he needs “to raise my game” when it comes to race starts, after he lost five positions on the opening lap. After qualifying on pole position for the second round in a row the day before, the Mercedes driver found himself dropping down the order at lights out on Sunday thanks to a slow start, something which his team mate George Russell also struggled with. Ferrari have developed a habit of executing great launches so far this season, but it was McLaren’s Oscar Piastri who surged from third to first off the line. He was joined by Charles Leclerc and their respective team mates down into Turn 1, quickly demoting Antonelli to P6. After passing Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris on track, the Italian gained further positions as his rivals pitted for fresh tyres, eventually returning him to the lead before the Safety Car was deployed to help recovery of Ollie Bearman’s Haas. “I was very annoyed with the start,” Antonelli said post-race. “I really need to find a way to do good starts because to be fair, it looked like we were doing a good job for the whole weekend. “The start felt strong, but then in the race I think I just did a mistake and then that obviously put me in a really bad position. The pace was super strong and of course we were lucky with the outcome of the Safety Car, even though on the mediums we had really strong pace.” Antonelli was able to save time during his pit stop