Antonelli takes Austin pole with first F1 title within reach

Kimi Antonelli secured pole position for the United States Grand Prix in Austin on Saturday, putting the Mercedes driver at the front of the grid on a weekend when he could win his first Formula 1 world championship. BBC Sport reported that he finished qualifying 0.179 seconds ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

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Isack Hadjar qualified third in the other Red Bull, ahead of Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. George Russell took sixth for Mercedes, with McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris seventh and eighth respectively. The result gives Antonelli the leading starting position, but leaves both Red Bulls close behind him for Sunday's race.

According to the BBC's Andrew Benson, Antonelli will become world champion if he wins and Hamilton finishes below fourth while Russell finishes below eighth. Hamilton's fifth place in qualifying is outside the position he needs under that scenario, but Russell starts sixth. Those are grid positions rather than race results, so the championship remains undecided heading into Sunday.

The pole was Antonelli's first since the Belgian Grand Prix in July. It followed a practice programme in which Ferrari had led all three sessions, while Verstappen had also shown speed during the second stage of qualifying. Antonelli's engineer, Peter Bonnington, expressed surprise at the outcome and noted that the Italian's first attempt in the final session had already been quick enough to secure pole.

Verstappen had been fourth fastest in the second qualifying session while using worn tyres, but said the car's balance deteriorated in the final phase. He attributed the shortfall on both runs to insufficient grip rather than driving errors. Despite that change in performance, he retained a place on the front row alongside Antonelli, with Hadjar immediately behind them in third.

Antonelli, 20, acknowledged the challenge posed by the Red Bull pair and said his immediate aim was to make a strong start, reach the first corner in front and control the pace. The United States Grand Prix is scheduled for Sunday, 25 October, at 20:00 GMT. A victory would fulfil Antonelli's part of the title equation, but his rivals' finishing positions would still determine whether he can celebrate the championship in Austin.