United States GP Qualifying: Kimi Antonelli beats Max Verstappen to surprise pole to boost chances of sealing maiden F1 title on Sunday
Kimi Antonelli stuns Max Verstappen to take pole in Austin; Antonelli could be crowned world champion on Sunday if he wins and other results go his way; watch the United States GP live on Sky Sports F1 & Sky Sports Main Event at 8pm on Sunday, with build-up from 6.30pm
Sunday 25 October 2026 00:36, UK
Kimi Antonelli beat Max Verstappen to pole position for the United States Grand Prix to boost his chances of sealing a maiden world championship in Sunday's race.
The 20-year-old Mercedes driver is all but certain to become Formula 1's youngest ever champion but could clinch the title with five rounds to spare if he wins in Austin on Sunday and other placings go his way.
It was perhaps the most unlikely of Antonelli's seven poles this season as he came from nowhere in Q3 to surge ahead of Verstappen, who had appeared for most of the weekend to be battling Ferrari for the front-row positions.
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Antonelli's pole time of 1:34.035s was good enough to beat Verstappen by 0.179s, with neither driver managing to improve on the second of their two Q3 flying laps.
Verstappen's Red Bull team-mate Isack Hadjar equalled his best qualifying result by taking third, leaving Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton a hugely disappointing fourth and fifth, respectively.
George Russell will start from sixth, with the Brit needing to finish in the top eight to ensure Antonelli won't be crowned champion if he wins on Sunday. Hamilton would also need to finish fifth or lower in the event of an Antonelli victory for the title to be confirmed.
"We got pole, so we will try to win tomorrow," Antonelli said. "Max has been very quick and Isack did an incredible job, so it won't be easy.
"We will try to get a good start and hopefully we lead into Turn 1, then set the pace, even though it will be very tight.
"Very happy with qualifying. Q3 was very tough with the wind. Very gusty and unpredictable but happy to put it on pole."
Oscar Piastri took seventh ahead of his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris as the latter was demoted from sixth after having his final effort deleted for breaching track limits.
Racing Bulls took the final two top-10 places but Liam Lawson will inherit ninth from his team-mate Arvid Lindblad, who has a five-place grid penalty for exceeding his engine component allowance.
Antonelli delivers as Ferrari fall away
Ferrari came into the session as favourites for pole having topped all three practice sessions, and the only driver who appeared to be capable of challenging them was the in-form Verstappen.
That form appeared to be holding as qualifying began with Leclerc setting the early pace. It was only an extra run at the end of Q1 from Norris that knocked the Ferrari driver and Verstappen down from the top two places.
It was in Q2 that the picture began to change, with Verstappen appearing to separate himself from his rivals as he eased through with just one run on a used set of tyres.
Leclerc finished the period fastest ahead of Antonelli and Russell, who had shown improvement for Mercedes but still couldn't match the Ferrari as all three ran on fresh tyres.
The Silver Arrows' dominance during the first half of the season enabled Antonelli to build a big championship lead and his team to do the same in the constructors' standings, but the recent upgrade package they brought had to this point failed to deliver.
That all changed on the first runs in Q3 when Antonelli put together a fine lap to sit almost two tenths clear of Verstappen, with Leclerc behind Hadjar, three tenths down and seemingly suddenly out of contention.
With gusting winds making for challenging conditions, Antonelli made a mistake in the final sector on his second run that appeared to have opened the door for Verstappen to snatch pole, but the Dutchman was also caught out and failed to improve his time, before the lap was deleted in any case for a track limits breach.
"Just Q3 was not good," Verstappen said. "Q1, Q2 was nice but then, for whatever reason on both sets [of tyres], just didn't have a good balance.
"There were no mistakes but just no grip and started to slide a lot and then the final lap, you can see that it's not really happening with the tail wind in places so you try to push a bit more, you hit the bump wrong the car is like a kangaroo and you have a massive slide so you know the lap is over."
Behind the top two on track, Leclerc managed to improve but not enough to improve his position, while Hamilton could only get above Russell for fifth.
Hamilton questioned over team radio whether Ferrari's rivals 'turning up their engines' had caused the turnaround, but Leclerc insisted after the session that it was down to other factors.
"This time I think it's slightly different in that I don't think the others have changed anything from Q2 to Q3," Leclerc said. "Where we have lost is on ourselves and that is mostly the tyres.
"The out lap was extremely difficult. There was a bit more cloud in Q3. We lost one or two degrees of track temp and, for us, it was night and day different and already from the out lap I felt I was having lots of difficulties.
"It's a shame that it happened in Q3 because I strongly believe that we had the pace to be fighting in front but unfortunately not today again."
Sky Sports F1's live United States GP schedule
Sunday October 25
5pm: F1 Academy Race 3
6.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: United States GP build-up*
8pm: THE UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX*
10pm: Chequered Flag: United States GP reaction
11pm: Ted's Notebook
*also on Sky Sports Main Event
Formula 1 heads to The Americas for another triple-header with the United States Grand Prix in Austin up first this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime
