Key events
Lap 11/56: Bortoleto now under investigation for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. He’s down in 17th at the moment. Moral of the story: drive on the track.
Lap 10/56: Hamilton is fourth, which means that even if Russell’s five-second penalty puts him outside the top eight, Antonelli would not wrap up the title today if he wins the race (as things stand).
Lap 9/56: Kimi is estimated to pit with his medium tyres between laps 21 and 27. His lead is up close to three seconds now.
Lap 8/56: Russell is given a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. He doesn’t seem impressed on team radio. “No need to send anyone to El Paso for a penalty start,” emails David C Hunter. “All Austin drivers are suffering as I-35 is entirely rebuilt!”
Lap 7/56: Antonelli and Verstappen are evenly match. Kimi will pull off one good lap and Max will hit back with another. That means we’re at a status quo – Antonelli’s lead is still just over two seconds at the end the lap.
Lap 6/56: Russell is under investigation for leaving the track and gaining an advantage on the first lap. He was battling with Piastri at the time.
Lap 5/56: Verstappen was starting to catch Antonelli but a quick few laps and the Italian’s lead is at 2.5sec.
Lap 4/56: Hadjar, who started the day third on the grid, is down to fifth after the Ferraris passed him on the opening lap.
Lap 3/56: George Russell is currently sixth – he needs to finish outside the top eight for Antonelli to clinch the title today. Max has the fastest lap of the race so far, but will be disappointed he didn’t get a better start with the grippy softs.
Lap 2/56: There’s some debris on the track and the virtual safety car is out. Antonelli has a lead of 2.1 seconds and is looking comfortable. Looks like Max may have driven over some of the debris but it doesn’t seem to have caused any damage.
Lap 1/56: Antonelli gets a very good start, Verstappen didn’t seem to get any power and the Italian increases the control he already had by sitting on pole. The Ferraris also had a good start – Leclerc is up to third and Hamilton up to fourth.
“Instead of penalizing Bortoledo 80 places, they should just have him start in El Paso,” chuckles Beau Dure.
Tyre update: Kimi will start on medium tyres, while No 2 and No 3 on the grid – Verstappen and Hadjar – are on softs, as are the Ferraris.
Grid change. Lance Stroll will now start from the pit after setup changes.
What Antonelli needs to clinch the title today
Just a reminder what Kimi needs to do to become the youngest world champion of all time today. He’ll clinch the title if he wins and George Russell finishes outside the top eight, with Lewis Hamilton outside the top four.
Max Verstappen may hold off attacking right at the start of the race. He’s asked how important he thinks turn one is for this race. “Not as important as in Singapore,” he replies quickly.
The grid
Lewis Hamilton sounds sort of positive ahead of today’s race, which he’ll start from fifth on the grid.
“I’m hoping we can challenge for a podium. That would be awesome but it’s going to be tough. It’s definitely going to be really tough. We just have to see where we go,” said Hamilton.
US GP grid and qualifying times
1 Kimi Antonelli 🇮🇹 Mercedes 1:34.035
2 Max Verstappen 🇳🇱 Red Bull 1:34.214
3 Isack Hadjar 🇫🇷 Red Bull 1:34.250
4 Charles Leclerc 🇲🇨 Ferrari 1:34.267
5 Lewis Hamilton 🇬🇧 Ferrari 1:34.311
6 George Russell 🇬🇧 Mercedes 1:34.476
7 Oscar Piastri 🇦🇺 McLaren 1:34.803
8 Lando Norris 🇬🇧 McLaren 1:35.049
9 Liam Lawson 🇳🇿 Racing Bulls 1:35.058 (Q2, no Q3 time)
10 Pierre Gasly 🇫🇷 Alpine 1:35.080
11 Nico Hülkenberg 🇩🇪 Audi 1:35.158
12 Fernando Alonso 🇪🇸 Aston Martin 1:35.818
13 Oliver Bearman 🇬🇧 Haas 1:36.031
*
14 Arvid Lindblad 🇬🇧 Racing Bulls 1:36.049
15 Esteban Ocon 🇫🇷 Haas 1:36.531
16 Lance Stroll 🇨🇦 Aston Martin 1:36.677
17 Carlos Sainz 🇪🇸 Williams 1:36.770
18 Alexander Albon 🇹🇭 Williams 1:36.967
19 Sergio Pérez 🇲🇽 Cadillac 1:37.433
20 Valtteri Bottas 🇫🇮 Cadillac 1:37.523
**
21 Franco Colapinto 🇦🇷 Alpine 1:35.722
†
22 Gabriel Bortoleto 🇧🇷 Audi 1:35.691
*Lindblad penalised five places for use of additional power unit element.
**Colapinto penalised 10 places for use of additional power unit element.
†Bortoleto penalised 80 places for use of additional power unit elements.
Conditions are pretty good for racing today. Temperatures will be around 28C/82F and no rain is broadcast. It’s not as blustery as it was yesterday either.
Max Verstappen starts second today behind Antonelli but don’t be surprised if he ends up winning today’s race. He’s also worked himself up a little before the race, having criticized the track in Austin as too bumpy. When circuit boss Boby Epstein brushed off those concerns, Max was having none of it: “I invite him to drive my car,” Verstappen told Dutch journalists on Saturday. “I think he’d have to get out after five laps and wouldn’t be able to walk anymore.”
If I drove Max’s car for five laps I wouldn’t be able to walk either, but for very different reasons.
We’ve done the drivers’ standings, so here’s a brief reminder of the constructors:
1 Mercedes 🇩🇪 578pts
2 Ferrari 🇮🇹 444
3 McLaren 🇬🇧 339
4 Red Bull 🇦🇹 332
5 Racing Bulls 🇮🇹 100
6 Alpine 🇫🇷 68
7 Haas 🇺🇸 30
8 Audi 🇩🇪 23
9 Williams 🇬🇧 12
10 Aston Martin 🇬🇧 7
11 Cadillac 🇺🇸 0
On the US broadcast, Apple has decided to bring on as its expert … Apple CEO John Ternus. We find out that he likes driving and thinks F1 (broadcast on Apple TV) is growing rapidly in the US and he think F1 The Movie (produced by Apple Studios) was very good. Funny that.
Who says nice guys don’t finish first? Kimi may well not clinch the title today, but he almost certainly will soon. Giles Richards looked at why Everyone Loves Kimi for us earlier this week:
Preamble
So here we are. Nine-year-old Kimi Antonelli* has a chance to become the youngest champion in F1 history today – and he’s sitting on pole too. He leads the championship by 102 points over his Mercedes teammate George Russell. He’ll clinch the championship if he wins and Russell finishes outside the top eight, with Lewis Hamilton outside the top four. While the two Britons will push Antonelli, the man who appears to be most on his mind is Max Verstappen, who has been in brilliant form – and not just against amateur karters – and sits second on the grid in Austin.
“Max has been very quick and did an incredible job in qualifying so it’s not going to be easy,” Antonelli said on Saturday. “Hopefully we’ll be leading into turn one and we’ll try to set the pace, even though it’s going to be very tight.”
Drivers’ standings
1 Kimi Antonelli 🇮🇹 Mercedes 340 pts
2 George Russell 🇬🇧 Mercedes 238
3 Lewis Hamilton 🇬🇧 Ferrari 229
4 Max Verstappen 🇳🇱 Red Bull 221
5 Charles Leclerc 🇲🇨 Ferrari 215
6 Lando Norris 🇬🇧 McLaren 201
7 Oscar Piastri 🇦🇺 McLaren 138
8 Isack Hadjar 🇫🇷 Red Bull 97
9 Liam Lawson 🇳🇿 Racing Bulls 75
10 Pierre Gasly 🇫🇷 Alpine 41
11 Arvid Lindblad 🇬🇧 Racing Bulls 38
12 Franco Colapinto 🇦🇷 Alpine 27
13 Oliver Bearman 🇬🇧 Haas 23
14 Nico Hülkenberg 🇩🇪 Audi 13
15 Gabriel Bortoleto 🇧🇷 Audi 10
16 Esteban Ocon 🇫🇷 Haas 7
17 Fernando Alonso 🇪🇸 Aston Martin 7
18 Carlos Sainz 🇪🇸 Williams 7
19 Alexander Albon 🇹🇭 Williams 5
20 Yuki Tsunoda 🇯🇵 Racing Bulls 1
Yet to score:
Lance Stroll 🇨🇦 Aston Martin
Valtteri Bottas 🇫🇮 Cadillac
Sergio Pérez 🇲🇽 Cadillac
* Actual age of F1 genius may be closer to 20.
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