Kimi Antonelli won the United States Grand Prix from pole position, beating Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by 13 seconds at the Circuit of the Americas. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff called it “the best he has delivered so far” and “the race of a champion who isn’t the champion yet.”
It was the 20-year-old Italian’s ninth win of the 2026 season. It was not quite enough to settle the title in Austin. Lewis Hamilton finished fourth for Ferrari and Antonelli’s Mercedes team-mate George Russell finished eighth, despite a five-second penalty, and that kept the championship open for another week. Antonelli now leads Russell by 123 points and Hamilton by 124, with 125 points left across the final five races. Two points in Mexico City on Sunday will make him champion.
‘Exceptional’ – Wolff’s verdict
Wolff did not hold back. He called the performance “exceptional” and said: “I think he’s outperformed the car.”
That point mattered to Mercedes. The team brought in an upgrade package two races earlier, ran different specifications on its two cars in Singapore, and fitted the new parts to both cars for the first time in Austin. Wolff admitted the package has not been easy to use.
“The update we put on the car is difficult to operate,” he said. “Kimi landed it. His driving style just glues with the car. I believe this is because the operational window of the car is so difficult.”
Antonelli led for most of the 56 laps and stayed on a one-stop strategy. Leclerc passed Max Verstappen for second on lap 49 but never got close to the Mercedes. Russell’s afternoon went wrong on the opening lap. He was penalised for leaving the track and gaining an advantage while fighting McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, and he finished 54 seconds behind the winner.
Antonelli himself compared the win with his emotional home victory at Monza, where he came through from 19th on the grid. “Monza, we clearly had the fastest car,” he said. “Definitely, Monza was a super-special one, and one that I will remember forever. But this one probably, in terms of execution, was better.”
Calm under the weight of history
Wolff said his driver has stayed relaxed even with the title within reach. He described Antonelli coming into his office, where he “sits on my chair, feet up, and keeps chatting away”, and quoted him as saying: “This is so funny. I’m not thinking about the championship at all.”
“He’s not over-thinking it,” Wolff said. “The advantage helps. But it’s also innate in him and I don’t think that it’s something to be trained for.”
That calm comes with a lot of history attached. If Antonelli clinches the title, he will be:
- Formula 1’s youngest world champion, beating Sebastian Vettel’s 2010 record by more than three years
- Italy’s first world champion since Alberto Ascari in 1953, 73 years ago
- Mercedes’ first drivers’ champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2020
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, an Italian himself, praised a rival driver. “As an Italian, wow, we need to go back to Ascari,” he said. “He pretty much attacks all the times. He’s the deserving leader of this championship. He’s writing an important piece of history for motorsport.”
What Mexico City requires
The maths for the Mexico City Grand Prix strongly favours Antonelli. He can only fail to clinch the title there if Russell or Hamilton wins the race. Even then, ninth place is enough if Russell wins, and tenth place is enough if Hamilton wins. Any other winner makes him champion whatever happens.
Antonelli has already finished in the top 10 in Mexico, and Mercedes’ Austin pace suggests the main risk is a race-ending incident, not a lack of speed. Antonelli said he would take the same approach he used in Texas.
“I’m going to approach it with the same mindset,” he said. “Just trying to have as much fun as possible, trying to hopefully fight for another win. It would be best to finish on a high, and that’s the goal. But I’m just going to try to enjoy the rest of the season from now on.”
Mercedes still lead the constructors’ championship, although Ferrari’s double top-four finish in Austin cut the gap to 133 points. For Wolff, the bigger story is the driver his team promoted from its junior programme as a teenager. That driver now looks ready to win the world title, and Austin was his most complete weekend so far.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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