Antonelli seizes United States Grand Prix pole as Wolff hails a 'miracle lap'

A pole nobody at Mercedes saw coming

Kimi Antonelli will start the United States Grand Prix from pole position after a stunning opening lap in Q3 at the Circuit of The Americas, timed at 1m 34.035s. Charles Leclerc had topped Q2, but the Italian put together the crucial lap when it mattered and, after a small error on his second effort, no rival could improve, with Max Verstappen the closest at 1m 34.214s. It is Antonelli's seventh pole of the season and his first since July's Belgian Grand Prix, as reported by Formula1.com. ¹⁴

The result astonished his own team principal. 'To be honest, George's lap is what we expected the car could do,' Toto Wolff told F1 TV, as quoted by Formula1.com. 'Not quite happy about the set-up and the upgrade we brought. Kimi pulled out such a miracle lap that I struggle to understand where that's coming from.' Wolff added that he had told a garage guest he expected something between P3 and P5, and that 'now we have a car on pole position and it looked very strong, so the car has it in it to be fast – we just need to understand why.' ¹³

Wolff repeated the theme to Sky Sports in the paddock: 'It's still a little bit of a surprise... we didn't see that lap coming.' He told Viaplay, in comments reported by RacingNews365, that he lacked a clear explanation for the lap and 'honestly just cannot explain it.' RacingNews365 also carried Wolff's observation that Russell performed at the level Mercedes expected, which is precisely why Antonelli's strong second sector while preserving his tyres for the slow sections at the end was so hard to comprehend. ⁶⁸

How the session unfolded

Lando Norris set the pace in Q1 and Charles Leclerc in Q2, and Ferrari had swept all three practice sessions – Leclerc fastest in FP1 and FP2 on Friday, Lewis Hamilton in FP3 – so the Scuderia entered qualifying as favourite for pole. Instead, when it mattered, Red Bull and Mercedes made gains and neither Ferrari could approach Antonelli's time, with Leclerc fourth at 1m 34.267s and Hamilton fifth at 1m 34.311s, per Formula1.com's team-by-team review. ¹⁴⁶

Verstappen was left frustrated despite the front-row start. 'Q1 and Q2 were nice, but then, for whatever reason, on both of the sets, just didn't have a good balance, there were no mistakes, but just no grip,' he told the FIA post-qualifying press conference, describing the car hitting a bump in the tailwind and sliding 'like a kangaroo'. Isack Hadjar, whose weekend had been so difficult that he could not complete a single lap on the Softs in FP3, recovered to third at 1m 34.250s after late set-up changes, matching his best qualifying result of the season. ⁴⁷

George Russell settled for sixth in the second Mercedes at 1m 34.476s, more than four tenths adrift of his team-mate, blaming 'two bad laps' in Q3. Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin told Formula1.com that Russell's final lap began with a very strong first sector but a small mistake at Turn 11 pushed the tyre temperatures up, while Antonelli had a similar drop-off on his second attempt but had already banked the time. McLaren's Lando Norris had his fastest Q3 lap deleted for track limits and qualified eighth, with Oscar Piastri seventh. ¹⁴

The upgrade package finally delivers – within a narrow window

Mercedes introduced a major upgrade package in Malaysia two races ago and has fought to maximise it since, with Wolff noting it 'didn't perform as we expected'. Antonelli said in the FIA press conference that the team is still working to understand the package fully but has taken 'a big step further' since Singapore, and thanked the factory staff for the work on it. Shovlin said the team has found it difficult to get the car into a consistent balance window since introducing the updates, but the weekend showed the performance is there when everything lands in the sweet spot. ¹⁴⁷

Wolff's diagnosis, given to both Sky Sports and F1 TV, was that the car is 'very much on the edge': if it is set up well and driven the right way, the performance is there, but 'if you are not hitting that peak completely... then you're having three to four tenths deficit', referring to Russell's gap. Shovlin added that large overnight changes based on simulator work moved the car in the right direction, though the deficit still came mainly through the Turn 12 to 15 sequence, and that Antonelli managed that section particularly well on his first Q3 run. ⁴⁶

Title scenarios and the race ahead

The pole sets up Antonelli's first match point in the championship. As Sky Sports reports, if Antonelli wins Sunday's race at the Circuit of The Americas with Lewis Hamilton finishing fifth or lower and George Russell ninth or lower, the 20-year-old seals the title with five rounds remaining – which would make him the sport's youngest world champion. Formula1.com's preview notes the equation simply: he needs to win the race; anything less and the wait goes on until Mexico City at least. ²⁵

Wolff has played down the prospect. 'We are not talking about that. It's not realistic,' he told Sky Sports F1, saying Mercedes were not the quickest in race pace in Friday's long runs and that the priority is scoring points and 'eventually, hopefully, winning'. The Mercedes boss also flagged that the car is probably not as strong in race trim as the Ferraris and Verstappen, and stressed that Russell must bring points forward for the Constructors' Championship, in which Mercedes leads Ferrari 578 points to 444, as reported by ge.globo. ¹³⁵

Verstappen, who has won the last two races, starts alongside and has urged respect in the fight: 'We keep it respectful and try to win the race,' he told Sky Sports, while noting Red Bull have been happier in the long runs. Hadjar confirmed he and Verstappen will try to use their Red Bull pairing to their advantage. The wide, uphill Turn 1 offers the second-placed car a chance to attack into the braking zone, per Sky Sports, which also cautions against reading too much into Friday's high tyre degradation: it says that has been the case at several races this season, only for the Grand Prix to turn into a one-stop race once teams change their set-ups and the track grips up over the weekend. ⁴⁵⁷

Strategy could also shape the race. Formula1.com's team review noted that both Mercedes cars progressed through Q1 on the medium tyre, giving them a new set of Softs for the Grand Prix, while Red Bull likewise saved soft tyres through qualifying to keep options open. Shovlin said some competitors have saved new Softs and that the top four teams looked closely matched on race pace, with Russell having strategic options to move forward. ⁴

Wind, track limits and a chaotic backdrop

Gusty wind made the final segment treacherous. Antonelli told the FIA press conference that Q3 was 'very tough with the wind, very gusty, unpredictable', and that conditions worsened on the last lap. Vasseur noted that Q2 was faster for everybody and all teams struggled to improve in Q3 as track conditions became more difficult, while Wolff joked after an FP3 track-limits excursion about putting a cushion in Antonelli's seat, having noted more than 250 violations across the weekend so far, as reported by PlanetF1. ⁴⁶⁷

Antonelli highlighted staying within track limits as one of his biggest achievements on a day when several rivals, including Norris and Verstappen, lost time to wind or errors. 'I didn't put myself in a difficult situation, and we were able to just progress throughout the session and build from there,' he said, per the FIA transcript. He starts from the position he wanted: 'we'll try to get a good start, and then hopefully we'll lead into Turn 1' – with the championship picture set to become far clearer by Sunday night. ⁷

Racing Bulls play the long game in Q3

Both Racing Bulls cars reached Q3, with Liam Lawson qualifying tenth without setting a Q3 time by design. He told Formula1.com the team decided before qualifying that, with Arvid Lindblad carrying a five-place grid drop, Lawson would sit out the final segment to save tyres for the race and help Lindblad move up the grid – Lindblad qualified ninth and will start 14th. Lawson said the car has strong race pace ahead of Sunday. ⁴