Antonelli takes pole for US GP as Verstappen qualifies second

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli took pole position at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin with a lap of 1:34.035. Red Bull's Max Verstappen was 0.179 seconds behind in second, while his teammate Isack Hadjar finished third, 0.215 seconds back. The race starts at 11:00 p.m. Turkish time.

Ferrari led in practice

Ferrari was fastest in all three practice sessions. Charles Leclerc led the first two, and Lewis Hamilton topped the last. The order changed in qualifying, with Leclerc fourth and Hamilton fifth. The Race reported that Ferrari made better use of its energy deployment than its rivals during the qualifying lap, and that Leclerc had complained about tyre preparation.

Antonelli made it through Q1 in sixth. In Q2 he came within 0.080 seconds of Leclerc, and on his first Q3 run he set the pole lap. On his second attempt he had to correct a slide at the exit of Turn 13 and abandoned the lap.

Title implications

Antonelli leads the championship with 340 points, 102 ahead of teammate George Russell. He has won eight of the 17 races so far this season. To seal the title in Austin, he needs to win the race and finish with Russell no higher than ninth and Hamilton no higher than fifth. Russell will start sixth and Hamilton fifth. If Antonelli succeeds, he will become champion at 20, breaking Sebastian Vettel's record as the youngest world champion.

Russell said he lost time after sliding on his first run. He was 0.441 seconds behind Antonelli. Oscar Piastri (+0.768) qualified seventh. Lando Norris's best Q3 lap was deleted for a track limits violation, dropping him to eighth. Norris described the McLaren as a very difficult car to drive.

Grid order and penalties

Arvid Lindblad qualified ninth, and Liam Lawson took tenth without setting a time. Racing Bulls kept Lawson out of Q3, taking into account the five-place grid penalty Lindblad received for his sixth internal combustion engine. Franco Colapinto received a 10-place penalty for control electronics, and Gabriel Bortoleto a 80-place penalty for engine component changes. Both Williams drivers were eliminated in Q1.

Pirelli expects a one-stop race and predicts that the soft and medium tyre combination will be the strongest. The race is 56 laps long. Verstappen has won three of the last four races at the track, and last year he went from pole position to victory.