Antonelli Beats Verstappen to US Grand Prix Pole in Austin

Kimi Antonelli put himself in the best possible position to become world champion in Texas. The Mercedes driver took pole position for the United States Grand Prix on 24 October with a lap of 1m34.035s, 0.179 seconds quicker than Max Verstappen. Isack Hadjar made it two Red Bulls on the second and third grid slots, Charles Leclerc was fourth, and Lewis Hamilton fifth. It was Antonelli’s seventh pole of the 2026 season and, according to the New Straits Times, his first in eight races.

The lap mattered beyond the grid. Antonelli arrived in Austin with a 102-point lead over team-mate George Russell, and Formula 1 confirmed that he could be crowned champion over the weekend. The scenario was precise: Antonelli had to win, Russell had to finish ninth or lower, and Hamilton had to finish outside the top four.

How the pole was won

Antonelli was only sixth in Q1, but he found his rhythm when it counted. He set his pole time with his first flying lap in Q3, and that proved decisive. The Race reported that a big correction at Turn 13 ruined his final attempt, which left him vulnerable. Neither Red Bull driver improved on their last runs, though, and Leclerc gained less than a tenth, so the opening lap held.

Conditions made it harder than the gap suggests. “Q3 was very tough with the wind, very gusty and unpredictable,” Antonelli said in comments published by Formula 1. He kept his message simple for Sunday: “We got pole so we’ll try to win tomorrow.” He also singled out the driver who split the Mercedes from the Ferraris. “Isack did an incredible job in Qualifying,” he said of Hadjar, whose third place was a career-best start according to the New Straits Times.

• 1. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) – 1m34.035s
• 2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) – +0.179s
• 3. Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) – +0.215s
• 4. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) – +0.232s
• 5. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) – +0.276s
• 6. George Russell (Mercedes) – +0.441s
• 7. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) – +0.768s
• 8. Lando Norris (McLaren) – +1.014s
• 9. Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) – five-place grid penalty
• 10. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) – no time in Q3

Ferrari’s promise fades and Verstappen’s balance problem

Ferrari looked like the team to beat before qualifying. Both The Race and the New Straits Times noted that the Scuderia had topped all three practice sessions. Leclerc then led Q2, and The Race calculated that repeating that time would have been good enough for second in Q3. Instead he finished fourth, a quarter of a second off pole, while Hamilton salvaged fifth with an improvement on his final lap.

Verstappen was not entirely happy with second. He had used the same set of tyres through Q1 and Q2 and felt the car was off in the final session. “For whatever reason on both of those sets [in Q3] I didn’t have a good balance,” he said, according to The Race. Formula 1 quoted him describing the conditions as “very tricky with the grip”. Even so, the Red Bull pair locked out the second row of a grid where Mercedes had expected a closer fight.

Russell had a scrappier session. He was more than four tenths behind his team-mate and finished sixth, a position that The Race suggested was somewhat fortunate because Lando Norris had a lap deleted for exceeding track limits, dropping the McLaren driver to eighth. That small detail would shape the championship arithmetic for the race.

Further down the order

Lindblad qualified ninth for Racing Bulls but carried a five-place penalty for exceeding his power unit allocation, promoting Pierre Gasly into the top ten on the grid. Audi tried to help Nico Hulkenberg with a tow from Gabriel Bortoleto, but Hulkenberg missed Q3 by a tenth in 12th. Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin caught fire at the end of his Q1 run, yet he continued and still made it into Q2.

• Q2 exits: Gasly, Hulkenberg, Bortoleto, Colapinto, Alonso, Bearman.
• Q1 exits: Ocon, Stroll, Sainz, Albon, Perez, Bottas.
• Williams had both cars more than half a second short of Q2 pace.
• Alex Albon, 20th, summed up the session for Williams in blunt terms.

Analysis: the title within reach

The pole itself was a reminder of why Antonelli leads the championship so comfortably. He had not been on pole for eight races, and Ferrari had looked faster all weekend, yet he delivered the decisive lap at the first attempt in gusty wind. That kind of execution under pressure is exactly what a title-deciding weekend demands.

The New Straits Times noted that a title in Austin would make Antonelli the youngest world champion in Formula 1 history and Italy’s first champion since Alberto Ascari in 1953. Starting from pole gave him control over the first part of the equation. The rest depended on where Russell and Hamilton finished, and with Hamilton fifth and Russell sixth on the grid, neither was in an obviously comfortable position.

The grid order also shaped the strategic picture for Sunday. With both Red Bulls directly behind Antonelli and the Ferraris on the third row, Mercedes knew it would face pressure from two different teams with two different tyre philosophies. Ferrari’s practice pace suggested strong long-run performance, while Red Bull had shown in Sepang and Singapore that it could win races in October. Antonelli’s pole gave him the clean air, but it did not guarantee a quiet afternoon.

For Russell, starting sixth with Hamilton just ahead created a different kind of pressure. Every place he gained would make it harder for Antonelli to clinch on Sunday, and every place he lost would make the title more likely. That is an unusual position for a team-mate, and Mercedes would have to manage it carefully during the race.

For Malaysian fans, Sunday’s race was scheduled for 3pm local time in Austin, which translated to 4am on Monday in Malaysia. Antonelli had the best seat on the grid; the question was whether the results around him would line up.

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