Kimi Antonelli dominates US Grand Prix, closes in on F1 championship

Italian wunderkind Kimi Antonelli took another step toward his first Formula One championship by claiming his ninth race of the year on Sunday at the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.

Antonelli, 20, capitalised on pole position and sailed to a time of 1:35:16.650 at the Circuit of the Americas, beating Charles Leclerc of Monaco by a comfortable 13.078 seconds.

With five races to go, Antonelli doesn't have the championship wrapped up yet, but his lead over Mercedes teammate George Russell of Great Britain expanded to 123 points.

Russell must win the next race in Mexico City to remain in contention for the championship; otherwise, it will go to Antonelli, who has come to dominate the sport in his second F1 campaign.

"I'm aware (securing the championship) is close, but the mindset doesn't change," Antonelli said post-race. "I want to finish the season on a high, to go into 2027 with high hopes."

The strategy for Antonelli and Mercedes paid off. While others chose to pit twice during the 56-lap race, Antonelli held on until Lap 25 to pit and didn't visit pit road again.

"It was a perfect way to end the weekend; it was an incredible team effort, especially from strategy to believe in me and go for one stop," Antonelli said.

Antonelli won five Grand Prix in a row early this season, one of which was the Miami Grand Prix. He's now 2-for-2 in the United States this season, with the Las Vegas Grand Prix still to come in November.

Max Verstappen, the four-time F1 champion for Red Bull Racing, rounded out the podium 17.485 seconds behind Antonelli. After rattling off every championship from 2021-24, Verstappen has been mathematically eliminated from this year's chase and will go two years without a world title.

"Our overall pace was not good enough, and the tires we had available were not the right ones," Verstappen said. "We still managed to get on the podium, maybe a bit lucky with the (Virtual Safety Car) at the end."

A Virtual Safety Car was deployed after Valtteri Bottas' Cadillac stopped on the track in Lap 52. It lasted until the penultimate lap, by which time nobody would be catching up to Antonelli.

Mercedes grew its lead in the constructors' standings to 133 points over Ferrari, 607 to Ferrari's 474.