Kimi Antonelli claimed pole position for the US Grand Prix with a fast lap for Mercedes at the Circuit of the Americas. He beat Red Bull driver Max Verstappen into second place on the grid.
Antonelli entered the race weekend holding a 102-point lead over his Mercedes teammate George Russell in the championship standings. To seal his first world title, Antonelli needs to finish Sunday’s race 125 points clear of Russell.
Isack Hadjar secured third place for Red Bull during qualifying. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton took fourth and fifth for Ferrari, while George Russell finished sixth in the second Mercedes.
Speaking after the session, Antonelli outlined his immediate objective for the race. We got pole, so we will try to win, he told reporters. Max has been very quick and did an incredible job in qualifying so it is not going to be easy.
Qualifying took place under gusty conditions at the Texas venue. Antonelli noted that the final stage of qualifying proved particularly difficult due to the unpredictable wind, but expressed satisfaction with his performance.
The Italian driver is aiming to become the youngest Formula One world champion at the age of 20. His latest performance comes after Mercedes implemented car upgrades in Malaysia that initially proved difficult to drive, leaving Russell four-tenths off his teammate’s pace in qualifying.
Mercedes engineers had hoped to extract performance from the recent upgrades after mixed results in Malaysia and Singapore. Engineer Pete Bonnington admitted the pole position came as a surprise given Red Bull’s recent form and the team’s ongoing work on the car package.
It was unexpected, we felt it would be close but it was a good surprise, Antonelli said. I am happy because we have been working very hard on this package and since Singapore we have taken a big step further.
During the final qualifying runs, Antonelli posted a lap time of one minute and 34.035 seconds. Verstappen attempted to improve on his final run but failed to better the Mercedes driver’s benchmark.
This marks Antonelli’s seventh pole position of the season to accompany his eight race wins. It is also the first time a Mercedes driver has started on pole in Austin since Valtteri Bottas claimed the top spot in 2019.
