A lap that shouldn’t have been enough
Kimi Antonelli started the final session of qualifying in Austin as an afterthought. Ferrari had topped all three practice sessions, and Max Verstappen looked like the only man able to follow them. Then the Mercedes driver stopped the clock at 1:34.035 and the picture flipped.
It was his seventh pole of the season, and he didn’t look sure it would hold. Antonelli made a mistake in the final sector of his second Q3 run, which seemed to hand Verstappen an opening. Verstappen failed to improve, and his last lap was deleted for exceeding track limits. The Red Bull still lines up second, 0.179s back, with Isack Hadjar third and equalling his best qualifying result of the year.
“We got pole, so we will try to win tomorrow,” Antonelli said. He called the conditions very gusty and hard to read.
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Ferrari’s afternoon unravels
Charles Leclerc set the early pace and Ferrari arrived as favourites. By Q3 the speed was gone. Leclerc took fourth, 0.232s off the top, and Lewis Hamilton was fifth. Leclerc blamed the tyres, pointing to a drop of a degree or two in track temperature, and insisted the car had the pace to fight at the front. Hamilton asked on the radio whether rivals had turned their engines up. Leclerc said nobody had changed anything between Q2 and Q3.
George Russell starts sixth in the second Mercedes. Lando Norris slipped from sixth to eighth when his final effort was deleted for track limits, behind Oscar Piastri in seventh.
What the title needs today
Antonelli, 20, is on the verge of becoming the youngest champion in the sport’s history, and he could clinch with five rounds to spare. A win would do it if the results around him cooperate. Russell needs a top-eight finish to keep the celebration on hold, and Hamilton would have to finish fifth or lower for the crown to be confirmed. The race starts at 8pm UK time.
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