Antonelli dominates United States Grand Prix as Williams end pointless again in Austin

Antonelli takes a commanding ninth win in Austin

Kimi Antonelli won the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of The Americas on Sunday, leading home Ferrari's Charles Leclerc by 13.078s with Max Verstappen a further 17.485s behind in third. It was Antonelli's ninth Grand Prix victory of the 2026 season, secured from pole position in a race formula1.com described as strategically controlled rather than easy, as most of his rivals stopped twice while the Italian ran a one-stop plan. ¹⁵

The complete classification, recorded by PlanetF1, put Lewis Hamilton fourth ahead of Lando Norris, Isack Hadjar, Oscar Piastri and George Russell, with Liam Lawson and Pierre Gasly rounding out the top ten. Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz finished 17th and 18th for Williams, one lap down, ahead of Sergio Perez. ⁵

A Virtual Safety Car in the closing laps, triggered when Valtteri Bottas pulled his Cadillac off the track with an engine issue, failed to trouble Antonelli, who held a margin of more than 13 seconds even after the field was slowed before the final lap. ¹⁴

How the race was won: one stop versus two

The winning margin was built on tyre strategy and a strong opening lap. Antonelli started on the medium compound while much of the top ten, including both Red Bulls, ran softs, and his launch allowed him to hold the lead as Verstappen dropped into the clutches of the Ferrari pair. Leclerc briefly took second before Verstappen reclaimed it before the end of lap one, and a short Virtual Safety Car for debris recovery did not last long enough for Verstappen to make a dent in Antonelli's early advantage. ¹

While Mercedes' rivals stopped twice, Antonelli pitted only once, at the end of lap 24, switching to the hard compound. As the official Formula 1 report recorded, he delivered a long first stint on mediums and then managed the hards all the way home. Verstappen ran an aggressive early second set of softs to guarantee a two-stop, and Leclerc followed a similar path, using a late second stop on hards to become the fastest man on track and sweep past Norris and then Verstappen for second in the closing laps. ¹⁶

Norris's chance of a podium slipped away on ageing tyres. Having gambled on a one-stop from the front group, he was passed by Verstappen at Turn 6 on lap 47, then by Leclerc, and finally by Hamilton on lap 51, who took fourth and kept the championship alive for another week. ⁴¹

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin, quoted in Formula 1's team reaction coverage, said the strategy decisions were not clear-cut but the team held its nerve and made the right call to stick with the one-stop, with solid pit stops. He added that a race win had not looked achievable after Friday's single-lap and long-run pace. ⁶

Antonelli said after the race: "It was the result we needed. The whole team deserve it so much and all this time putting in so much work on bringing this new package and finally seeing the result is very pleasant and it was also perfect execution from strategy to call the one-stop so I'm really happy we made it stick and it was a great team effort." ¹

Title celebrations delayed until Mexico City

Antonelli arrived in Austin needing a win, plus a fifth-or-lower finish from Hamilton and a ninth-or-lower finish from Russell, to clinch the Drivers' Championship. Both conditions failed: Hamilton recovered from the midfield to fourth, passing Hadjar at the top of the hill into Turn 1 on lap 42, and Russell held eighth despite a five-second penalty, keeping his own slim mathematical hopes alive. ⁴

The points picture heading to Mexico City, as tallied by SB Nation's race coverage, puts Antonelli on 365 points with Russell second on 242 and Hamilton third on 241, one point behind his former Mercedes team-mate. Verstappen's podium extended his run to six consecutive events and, per Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies, moved Red Bull up to third in the Constructors' Championship and left Verstappen six points behind second place in the Drivers' standings. ⁴³

Those standings figures should be read against the official classification for this event, with the next round at the Mexico City Grand Prix across the weekend of October 30 to November 1 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. ¹

Red Bull and Ferrari leave points on the table

Red Bull's podium came despite a troubled race. Mekies said Verstappen's car hit debris around lap eight and picked up damage, that further issues hurt the balance and increased degradation, and that the team was leaving Austin "not fully satisfied" despite a 12th podium of the season for Verstappen. Hadjar, sixth, reported strong first-stint pace on softs before a system issue in the pit lane compromised his one-stop race. ³

Ferrari finished fourth through Hamilton, who argued the late Virtual Safety Car cost him a shot at a double podium. Team principal Fred Vasseur made the same point, saying the pace was there until the last lap and that without the VSC towards the end Ferrari could have come away with a double podium. Leclerc said the team had brought good upgrades and was going in a direction he liked, with the target of converting that progress into a win. ³⁶

McLaren's Andrea Stella acknowledged that fifth and seventh were not results the team could be satisfied with, citing a disappointing qualifying that made a podium virtually unattainable, while crediting upgrades the team brought to Austin and Piastri's defence of seventh against Russell for roughly thirty laps. Russell, penalised for leaving the track and gaining an advantage when fighting Piastri on the opening lap, said he simply lacked pace and could not find a way past the McLaren once he caught it. ⁶

Williams' difficult weekend deepens

Williams extended a point-less streak to three events, with Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz classified 17th and 18th, one lap down, ahead of Perez. The weekend had been shaped by struggles well before the race: after running at the bottom of the timesheets in both Friday sessions, both Williams drivers were eliminated in Q1, starting 17th and 18th after grid penalties for Franco Colapinto and Gabriel Bortoleto elevated them two places. ¹²

Albon was blunt after qualifying, telling Formula 1: "We've been fighting a lot with the car, with the tyres. Honestly, I finished Qualifying just as confused as I was in FP1. We were trying everything. We're doing different set-ups every session and yet we can't fix core problems in the car." Sainz, who had said on Friday he was not expecting miracles, attributed part of the shortfall to the team investing heavily in testing for the 2027 season, while conceding: "We are slow – it's what it is." ²

In the race, Albon gained three positions in the opening laps but his progress came at the cost of earlier contact with Alonso, and Sainz was squeezed into the pit wall as Alonso fought to move into 16th, a position the Spaniard achieved five laps in. Late in the race the two Williams cars were separated by just over half a second in a fight for 17th, the closest battle on track in the closing stages, with Sainz also holding up race leader Antonelli at Turn 12 and forcing a lock-up. ¹⁴

Midfield and retirements

Lawson delivered a clean one-stop race for Racing Bulls, pitting once for hards that lasted 31 laps, while team-mate Arvid Lindblad finished 12th after a grid penalty and early left-hand-side damage. Haas failed to score at its home race despite imposing team orders to prioritise Esteban Ocon's undamaged car over Bearman, who received a 10-second penalty and later retired with damage. Colapinto retired for Alpine after contact up the hill into Turn 1 broke his floor and sidepod, and Bottas's Cadillac stopped on track with an engine issue, triggering the late Virtual Safety Car. ⁶³¹

Gabriel Bortoleto recovered to 13th for Audi after starting from the back with an 80-place grid penalty for exceeding power unit component allocations, with team-mate Nico Hulkenberg 11th after an anti-stall problem shortly after the start cost him ground. Alpine's Gasly held on to the final point in 10th despite floor damage from contact with Bearman and a slow pit stop caused by a hardware issue. ¹³