US GP: Antonelli wins in Austin, needs ninth in Mexico for F1 title

Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes won the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, on Sunday, October 25, 2026, his ninth victory of the Formula 1 season. He started from pole position, made a single pit stop and crossed the line about 13 seconds clear of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen third. Because his Mercedes team-mate George Russell finished only eighth and Lewis Hamilton fourth, the title was not settled in Texas, but Antonelli now needs only a ninth-place finish at the Mexico City Grand Prix next weekend to be sure of the drivers' championship.

The Austin result moves one of the most one-sided championships of recent seasons to the edge of its conclusion. Antonelli arrived in Texas knowing that a big enough points swing could seal the title on the day. That did not happen only because his two closest rivals, Russell and Hamilton, scored enough to keep the arithmetic alive for one more weekend. In practice the gap is now so wide that the Mexico City race looks like a formality: Antonelli can finish outside the podium, and even outside the top five, and still be crowned.

The way he won also matters. Starting from pole, Antonelli controlled the race from the front and ran a one-stop strategy, pitting once at the end of lap 24 for hard tyres and then managing the gap to the finish. A margin of more than 13 seconds over a Ferrari, with a four-time world champion in Verstappen a further four seconds back, shows how comfortable he was on a weekend when the rest of the field could not match his pace.

For Mercedes the afternoon was mixed. While one car won, Russell had a difficult race. On the opening lap he went off the track while fighting Piastri and was judged to have gained an advantage. The stewards said the normal penalty for that offence would have been ten seconds, but they reduced it to five because it was a first-lap incident and because Russell had himself been under pressure from another car, which had put Piastri in an attacking position. Russell served the penalty at his pit stop at the end of lap 22, rejoined in tenth and recovered to eighth by the flag.

Afterwards Russell called his own pace "rubbish". He said the penalty had probably cost him two or three places, but that the deeper problem was a lack of speed he still could not explain. That remark will be watched closely in the Mercedes garage: the team has one driver about to win the championship and another who cannot work out why his car was so far off the pace on the same day.

United States Grand Prix 2026: the top finishers Position | Driver | Team | Gap to winner 1 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | - 2 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 13.078s 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Ford | 17.485s 4 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 18.515s

Short-term: The championship decision moves to the Mexico City Grand Prix next weekend, where Antonelli needs ninth place or better. Russell and Hamilton, separated by a single point, are now fighting mainly for second place in the standings.

Long-term: A title for Antonelli would make him the face of Mercedes for the years ahead and confirm the team's return to the front. Russell's unexplained loss of pace in Austin is an engineering question the team will want answered before the final races.

Who is affected: Antonelli and Mercedes, who are one result from the drivers' title; Russell and Hamilton, whose duel for runner-up is now the closest fight at the top; Ferrari, who took two of the top four places; and Formula 1 fans worldwide, including the large audience that follows the sport in India, who will watch Mexico City for the crowning moment.

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