Antonelli snatches US GP pole from Verstappen as Mercedes upgrade finally clicks

Kimi Antonelli put his Mercedes on pole for the United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas in Austin on Saturday, denying Max Verstappen a third consecutive pole and pushing Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton back to fourth and fifth in a qualifying session shaped by deteriorating gusty conditions.

The result marks a significant step forward for Mercedes, whose sweeping upgrade introduced at the Malaysian Grand Prix made the W17 faster but considerably harder to set up. The team had struggled with balance in Austin’s opening practice session before gradually finding their footing across the weekend. A revised front wing — first trialled in Singapore practice — was added to the package for the Texas round.

“I’m happy because we’ve been working really hard on this package, and we’re still trying to understand it fully,” said Antonelli, the 20-year-old Italian who leads the Formula 1 championship. “Since Singapore, we’ve taken a big step further, and now we’ve just got to keep working on it, keep understanding. But it’s a good result for the team because they’ve done a tremendous job on bringing this package. Finally, we’re seeing the results.”

With Q3 conditions worsening through the session, nailing the first of two flying laps proved decisive. Antonelli, who had not taken pole since July’s Belgian Grand Prix, also avoided any track-limits deletions — a detail he highlighted as one of his biggest personal achievements on the day.

“It was surprising, but also one of the biggest achievements for me today is that I didn’t do track limits,” he said. “That also made our life a little bit easier. I didn’t put myself in a difficult situation, and we were able to just progress throughout the session and build from there.”

The pole opens a slim but real window for Antonelli to clinch the drivers’ championship on Sunday. He can wrap up the title in Texas if he wins the race and team-mate George Russell finishes ninth or lower, with Hamilton no higher than fifth. Russell and Hamilton start sixth and fifth respectively, making the precise combination of results required unlikely — but not impossible.

“I’m just going to try to do the best race I can. I’m going to try to win, and then we’ll see what happens,” said Antonelli. “It does feel a little bit different, but the goal stays the same. I just need to keep doing my job, and actually, I feel like I can enjoy the driving and everything more because I’m in a very good position.”