Kimi Antonelli has put one hand firmly on the Formula 1 drivers’ championship trophy after securing pole position for the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas. The 20-year-old Italian star arrives in Austin holding a commanding 102-point advantage over his Mercedes team-mate, George Russell. Antonelli now stands on the brink of history, knowing that a victory on Sunday—combined with Russell finishing ninth or lower and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton placing fourth or lower—will crown him as the youngest world champion in the history of the sport.
Heading into qualifying, Ferrari had looked like the team to beat following an impressive performance in practice. Charles Leclerc set the benchmark across Friday’s sessions before Hamilton topped the leaderboard in FP3. However, the Scuderia’s blistering pace mysteriously vanished when it mattered most in Q3. Antonelli took full advantage, stamping his authority on the session during his opening run with a lap time of 1:34.035s. That benchmark put him nearly two tenths of a second clear of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, with Isack Hadjar trailing his four-time world champion team-mate by a mere 0.036s. With none of the top three improving on their final efforts, Antonelli’s initial effort held firm, securing his first pole position since the Belgian Grand Prix.
Leclerc proved to be the fastest of the Ferrari drivers, placing fourth overall, just ahead of Hamilton. The seven-time champion managed a slight improvement on his second Q3 run to move up a spot into fifth. Meanwhile, Russell will start from sixth place on the grid, lining up ahead of the McLaren pair of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
Further down the top ten, strategy and grid penalties came into play. Arvid Lindblad set the ninth-fastest time for Racing Bulls, but a five-place grid penalty for a power unit component change drops him to 14th on the grid. Aware of the penalty and conceding that Liam Lawson could not challenge the top four teams, Racing Bulls opted to keep Lawson in the garage during Q3. As a result of his team-mate’s sanction, the New Zealander will start from ninth.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly missed out on a spot in the final qualifying segment by just 0.022s at the hands of Lawson, leaving him 11th on the timesheet. Nico Hülkenberg brought his Audi home in 12th, despite receiving a slipstream down the back straight from team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto between Turns 11 and 12. Bortoleto ended up 13th fastest, but the Brazilian faces an overwhelming 80-place grid penalty following a double power unit swap over the weekend, dropping him to the very back of the grid. He will share the final row with Alpine’s Franco Colapinto, who picked up a 10-place penalty for a power unit change of his own.
The reshuffling from those grid sanctions promoted Fernando Alonso to 13th for the race start. The Aston Martin driver reached Q2 for only the second time this season and will line up alongside Haas driver Oliver Bearman, who had his best lap deleted in the closing moments for exceeding track limits.
The opening 18-minute session brought no major surprises at the bottom of the field. Williams drivers Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon had already cautioned that the COTA track would expose their car’s difficult handling, and those fears materialized as they qualified 19th and 20th. Sainz finished two tenths ahead of Albon to extend his head-to-head qualifying advantage to 14-4, while a baffled Albon admitted over team radio that he had no explanation for the lack of pace. Cadillac struggled on home soil, with Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas finishing at the bottom of the standings, separated by just 0.090s. Perez now leads Bottas 10-8 in their head-to-head battle. Esteban Ocon of Haas and Lance Stroll of Aston Martin were the final drivers eliminated in Q1.