Formula One championship leader Kimi Antonelli beat Max Verstappen to pole position for the United States Grand Prix as test leader Ferrari saw his challenge collapse in qualifying.
Antonelli performed well through the hour of qualifying and beat Verstappen by 0.179 seconds in Q3 to claim his seventh pole position of the season, while Isack Hadjar placed two Red Bulls in the top three.
Antonelli was one of three drivers – alongside Mercedes teammate George Russell and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri – to go through Q1 on mediums in order to save an extra set of soft tires for Q3. (Something Red Bull also did by running Verstappen and Hadjar on a single set of softs in Q1 and Q2.)
After finishing sixth in Q1, Antonelli then finished Q2 just 0.080 seconds behind Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari at the top of the Q2 standings, and took provisional pole at the start of Q3 with a time of 1’34”035.
He was more than a tenth ahead at that point in the second sector on his final attempt, but then suffered a big correction coming out of the turn 13 right-hander that destroyed that attempt and appeared to open the door for his rivals.
But the Red Bulls failed to improve their times – both actually had their final, slower efforts canceled for track limits infringements – and with Leclerc finding less than a tenth, it meant Antonelli retained pole.
Verstappen said that in failing to beat Antonelli, after going through Q1 and Q2 on the same set of tires, “for some reason on those two sets (in Q3) I didn’t have good balance.”
Third place for Hadjar marked a dramatic turnaround for the second Red Bull driver after struggling throughout testing as Ferrari’s fortunes went in the other direction.
Leclerc was fastest even in Q2, and replicating that time in the final session would have earned him second place, but he finished fourth by a quarter of a second while teammate Lewis Hamilton reclaimed fifth place by improving on his final lap.
Russell was more than four tenths behind his teammate in pole position in Q3 and perhaps lucky to secure sixth place on the grid, as Lando Norris had also moved ahead of him at the end of the session but had his lap deleted for track limits, dropping him to eighth place behind McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.
After taking both cars to Q3, Racing Bulls opted not to run Liam Lawson in the latter part of qualifying. That allowed Arvid Lindblad, who must serve a five-place grid penalty on Sunday, to qualify ninth and potentially lose one fewer place than he otherwise would have.
Audi’s second-quarter bet fails
Audi shifted its drivers to the opposition at the end of Q2 in a bid to pass Nico Hulkenberg with help from teammate Gabriel Bortoleto, who picked up a heavy grid penalty this weekend for engine component changes.
Bortoleto even said after the session “I hope he pulled off that tow I gave, damn it was a big shot”, but in reality Hülkenberg was looking far behind his teammate on the back straight.
His second sector failed to achieve a personal best and Hülkenberg failed to improve on his first effort and remained eighth, which left him vulnerable against the Racing Bulls and Alpine of Pierre Gasly.
All three went faster than him and Hülkenberg was then eliminated 12th, a tenth from the Q3 threshold, with Bortoleto 13th. (But with this engine penalty at the back of the grid.)
Gasly appeared to have propelled the Alpine into Q3 once again before the Racing Bulls duo’s final laps knocked him out of the top 10, 0.032 seconds behind Lawson’s time, although Lindblad’s penalty for an internal combustion engine change means Gasly will start 10th.
He was more than six tenths faster in Q2 than his Alpine teammate Franco Colapinto, 14th.
Fernando Alonso was in the top 16 in Q2 progression in all three practice sessions and he managed to do so by exiting Q1, despite a fire breaking out in the back of his Aston Martin as he headed towards his final attempt during that session.
Alonso was able to continue and although he looked the slowest of the 16 cars in Q2, he was rewarded for improving on his final lap when Ollie Bearman had his final effort canceled for a minor track limits infraction coming out of the Turn 11 hairpin, dropping him from 13th to the bottom of the Q2 order.
Williams’ painful double exit
Esteban Ocon had been faster than Haas teammate Bearman in their first runs through Q1, but failed to improve on his second attempt, then failed to find enough time to beat Alonso’s time and was eliminated in 17th.
This fate also befell Lance Stroll, who was hot on his teammate’s heels at Aston Martin on Friday but ultimately lost more than four tenths to Alonso at the end of Q1.
But Williams’ miserable weekend continued, with both cars more than half a second off the pace needed to exit the session.
Carlos Sainz was the quicker of the two in 19th despite failing to improve on his final lap, while Alex Albon lamented running unnecessarily early before the session ended.
“What a f***ing spectacle,” he said after 20th place in qualifying, as the lap slipped away from him in the final sector when he slid into Turn 18, the final stretch of the multi-apex right-hander. “Worse still, I don’t know what’s going on.”
Less than a tenth of a second separated the two Cadillacs at the bottom of the standings, even if it was once again Sergio Perez who was faster than Valtteri Bottas – who, as revealed on Saturday in Austin, is not yet guaranteed to race for the team in 2027.
Ranking – Q3
1 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) 1m34.035s
2Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.179s
3 Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +0.215s
4Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.232s
5 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.276s
6 George Russell (Mercedes) +0.441s
7Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +0.768s
8Lando Norris (McLaren) +1.014s
9 Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) +2.014s
10 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) No Time
T2
11 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) 1m35.080s (+0.022s at P10)
12 Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) +0.078s
13Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) +0.611s
14 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +0.642s
15Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +0.738s
16Ollie Bearman (Haas) +0.951s
T1
17 Esteban Ocon (Haas) 1m36.531s (+0.291s in 16th place)
18 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +0.146s
19Carlos Sainz (Williams) +0.239s
20 Alex Albon (Williams) +0.436s
21 Sergio Pérez (Cadillac) +0.902s
22 Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) +0.992s
Gn sports
