Antonelli sets the stage for final title push with U.S. GP pole

Kimi Antonelli will start the United States Grand Prix in a potentially title-winning position after taking pole position at the Circuit of the Americas.

Antonelli needed only one lap to take top spot with a best time of 1m 34.035s, which came on his first run of Q3.

Max Verstappen emerged as his closest challenger, lapping 0.179s further back.

Antonelli was the second driver on the road for the second runs but scuppered his time with a slide through Turn 13, and he was forced to watch the timing tower defensively as his rivals attempted to capitalize.

But in a fizzer of a conclusion to the session, track conditions peaked in the late afternoon, and thanks to a gusty tailwind blowing through the final sector, only Lewis Hamilton found enough time to improve his position, but not by enough to threaten top spot.

Antonelli’s best time stood for the Italian’s first pole position since July’s Belgian Grand Prix, eight rounds ago.

“We got pole, so we’ll try to win tomorrow,” Antonelli said. “But Max has been very quick, and also Isack [Hadjar, P3] did an incredible job in qualifying.

“It’s not going to be easy, but we’ll try to get a good start and then hopefully we’ll lead into Turn 1 and we’ll try to set the pace even though it’s going to be very tight.”

To win the championship on Sunday, Antonelli must win the grand prix with Hamilton no higher than fifth and George Russell no higher than ninth.

Hamilton qualified fifth and Russell sixth, making this an almost title-deciding grid configuration.

Verstappen was unhappy with the way qualifying ended, lamenting the conditions and a lack of balance that left him unable to challenge for pole.

“Q1 and Q2 were nice, but then for whatever reason on both sets [of Q3 tires] I just didn’t have a good balance,” he said.

“There were no mistakes, but just no grip.

“I’m just not very happy with Q3, to be honest. It’s not what I wanted, not what I expected, but if it’s still a P2, I’ll take it.”

Hadjar qualified third, equaling his best qualifying result and completing a significant turnaround from a painful series of practice sessions that had him well off the pace.

“I’m happy with P3 because it’s been incredibly hard for me since the start of the weekend,” he said. “I couldn’t find the right balance. I struggled so much.

“This morning [in FP3] I couldn’t even set a lap on the soft because the car was that hard to drive.

“I’m just thankful for the hard work of the team throughout the weekend.”

Ferrari had been tipped as the pole favorite ahead of qualifying but flopped in Q3, with Charles Leclerc 0.232s off the pace and Hamilton 0.044s further back.

Hamilton’s last lap pushed George Russell to sixth, 0.441s off the pace of his pole-getting teammate.

Oscar Piastri qualified seventh for McLaren, 0.768s off the pace. He was 0.246s ahead of teammate Lando Norris, whose final lap improved his position to sixth but was deleted for track limits.

Arvid Lindblad qualified ninth but will start 14th with an engine part change penalty.

Liam Lawson qualified 10th but did not set a time to minimize the impact of teammate Lindblad’s grid penalty. Pierre Gasly was deposed from a spot in Q3 by just 0.022s with the final lap of Q2, leaving him 11th for the session and ending Alpine’s five-race run of getting at least one car into the top 10.

Nico Hulkenberg qualified a close 12th, 0.078s further back, despite Audi arranging for teammate Gabriel Bortoleto to slipstream him in on his final lap in a bid to get him through to Q3 for the first time since the midseason break. Bortoleto qualified 13th but will start from the back of the grid with an engine change penalty.

Franco Colapinto qualified 14th but will start 21st with his own engine penalty.

Fernando Alonso was 15th in his third and Aston Martin’s fourth Q2 appearance of the year, one place ahead of Oliver Bearman, who had a time good enough for 13th deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 11.

Esteban Ocon qualified 17th ahead of Lance Stroll and the struggling Williams teammates Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon, with the latter describing his session as “a s*** show”.

“Why did we go so early?” he said of his final Q1 run. “I don’t know what’s going on.”

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