Kimi Antonelli wins the United States Grand Prix at Austin and is so close to sealing the World Championship he can already smell it given the next race is just over the border, to a degree. Talking of stinking, our United States Grand Prix Result Summary is better late than never we suppose.
With just a hint of cynicism, bias, opinion and colour. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered watching live in the parts of the planet where it’s night time, or don’t have enough time regardless of time zone.
United States Grand Prix Result Race Summary
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Here’s where we capture the laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene – QUALIFYING
Kimi Antonelli is one step closer to sealing the World Championship taking a comfortable pole position ahead of Verstappen and Hadjar proved the strength of Red Bull with a career-hih third on the grid. Usual disappointments despite showing pace across the other sessions was Ferrari and George Russell. Norris showed glimpses of speed but come qualifying MCLaren are fourth best. Norris lost a place to his team mate when he had a time deleted. Arvid Lindblad has a penalty so won’t start from 9th, but a good job to out-qualify Lawson.
For interest the Mercedes and McLarens are on the medium tyres with the rest of the major runners and midfield on softs.
TOP TEN QUALIFYING
| 1 | Kimi ANTONELLI | Mercedes | 1’34.035 | |
| 2 | Max VERSTAPPEN | Red Bull | 1’34.214 | +0.179 |
| 3 | Isack HADJAR | Red Bull | 1’34.250 | +0.215 |
| 4 | Charles LECLERC | Ferrari | 1’34.267 | +0.232 |
| 5 | Lewis HAMILTON | Ferrari | 1’34.311 | +0.276 |
| 6 | George RUSSELL | Mercedes | 1’34.476 | +0.441 |
| 7 | Oscar PIASTRI | McLaren | 1’34.803 | +0.768 |
| 8 | Lando NORRIS | McLaren | 1’35.049 | +1.014 |
| 9 | Arvid LINDBLAD | Racing Bulls | 1’35.049 | +1.014 |
| 10 | Liam LAWSON | Racing Bulls |
Setting the scene – RACEDAY
It’s a dry, hottish day in Austin, with the usual amount of pre race filler from the broadcaster but the traditional Grid Walk as enjoyable as ever. Kimi probably won’t win the Championship today, but he can all but seal it for the following weekend.
Lap 1 – Kimi Anotnelli shows a clean pair of heals from pole position, which in general I’m not sure if that applies in F1 but we guess if they dirty it would be harder to push the pedals, and he’s well clear of the pack going in and out of the steep, sharp first corner. Less clear is Verstappen and the two Ferraris who are up to 3rd and 4th, and a few corners later through the fast sweepers Leclerc overtakes the Red Bull for second. Hamilton tries to get by not long after in a move that would have ended in an accident a few seasons ago. But Verstappen being Verstappen, it doesn’t take long to get past Leclerc and he re-takes the Ferrari before the end of lap one. Kimi Antonelli is so far ahead after the first lap he can almost taste the chequered flag already. For those who like to bash Lance Stroll’s ability in F1, he’s dead last. Not far behind for underperforming in 2026, the Williams cars are up to 14th and 15th.
ORDER – ANT VER LEC HAM HAD RUS PIA NOR LAW GAS
VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
Not exactly sure why this is yet, presuming Stroll. There’s apparently debris on turn 11 and marshals on the track. And whatever else it was it doesn’t matter, as the VSC lasts less than 30 seconds.
VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR ENDS
Lap 5 – No change in the order excitement levels. Antonelli is 2.6 seconds in front of Verstappen, with similarly but smaller boring gaps between the cars. Norris behind Piastri is the only gap in the top ten under a second. Perhaps that’s in Norris’ contract. Or Piastri is continuing his 2026 go-slow. Midway through that last sentence, George Russell is under investigation for running wide and gaining. Replays show he did, then ran into a luckless Oscar Piastri. Not sure if that’s gaining an advantage, Piastri could argue the case. Other replays of the first lap show Carlos Sainz and Oliver Bearman getting up to no good.
Lap 7– As it stands Kimi Antonelli will have to wait for another race to be the youngest World Champion, although he could also end up in Mexico
Lap 8 – Uh oh, here comes the team orders at McLaren. The good old “I’ve got more speed, and being held up” is coming out from Lando Norris to his radio. In fairness, Norris would have been quicker in qualifying if not having a lap time deleted. Plus in general Norris has been sold and spectacular this season, while Oscar Piastri has been at okay Pereq levels this season. Especially in races. So maybe they should swap. Norris gets by soon enough, in fairness by lap 13 Norris is 3.5 seconds in front.
Lap 9 – PENALTY – George Russell cops a five second penalty for his wide-running and Piastri-chopping. Maybe it’s because George Russell is thoroughly unlikeable. A five second penalty drops him behind the McLarens. And if they swap positions, it will probably only be one McLaren.
Lap 10 – Some decent midfield racing across a number of midfield cars is providing some good side interest. Esteban Ocon was also looking for team assistance to get past his team mate. Initially refused by the team, a lap later Bearman lets Ocon past. Some good nes for Ocon who has been turfed out of Haas for 2027, replaced by the very capable Rafael Camara.
Lap 13 – Verstappen makes a nice early pit stop, doing some strategy changing on the fly. Something that will no doubt confuse Ferrari. The Red Bull rejoins behind Oscar Piastri in 8th.
Lap 14 – Ferrari pits Hamilton the lap after, and it doesn’t quite work out as they’d like, which is no surprise. Hamilton rejoins behind Liam Lawson in 9th, so if it takes more than a lap or so to get past the strategy hasn’t worked. It usually doesn’t for Ferrari.
Lap 16 – Charles Leclerc stops for new tyres, he’s racing Verstappen for second who didn’t even wait for Piastri’s pit stop to get past. Verstappen is well clear for net second after the Ferrari leaves the pits, and Piastri’s pitstop sees him drop to 12th and in among the midfield battlers. A lap later Lando Norris pits, his pit stop is “slow” at 4.4 seconds but he still comes out in front of the midfield. For strategic interest, the McLarens are on the hard tyres, so maybe will get to the end.
Lap 17 – Verstappen is flying on his new tyres, going a second a lap quick than Antonelli, and moving quick enough to make it interesting when the Mercedes pits. Although Verstappen is closing in on George Russell who could do his teammate a solid by holding up Verstappen, and they don’t like each other very much. A lap later Verstappen is past with not much trouble. Maybe Russell didn’t want to help Antonelli more than Verstappen.
Lap 20 – Oliver Bearman gets a 10 second penalty for a lap one clash with Pierre Gasly. He’s down in 18th already, so it will put him behind Lance Stroll which is some kind of punishment.
Lap 21 – Almost at the same time Leclerc passes George Russell for 4th and Lando Norris passes Laim Lawson for 8th. Lawson as ever doing his best of the rest thing in a fine season for the Racing Bulls driver.
ORDER – ANT* HAD* VER LEC RUS* HAM NOR LAW* PIA GAS*
* Yet to pit
Lap 23 – George Russell pits for new hard tyres, which means one stopper. He also takes his five second penalty too. He rejoins in 10th behind Pierre Gasly. Meanwhile the Red Bulls swap position as Hadjar plays the good team mate. Which he should, it’s a good seat to keep for 2027. Verstappen thanks his team by giving them a spray over the radio for being stuck in dirty air, which ironically he airs his dirty laundry over the radio. Some folk are hard to please.
Lap 24 – Race leader Kimi Antonelli pits, clean pit stop and he rejoins behind Verstappen and Hadjar and Leclerc, and Bearman (a lap down) and just in front of the Ferrari of Hamilton. The Mercedes won’t stop again, while you think the Red Bulls and Ferraris most certainly will. Leclerc could help himself by getting past Hadjar for 2nd. Hadjar is helping his team mate by keeping 2nd. Hadjar and Red Bull give that up when they pit at the end of lap 25.
So more of a strategy race this one, which favours Verstappen and Antonelli. And not Ferrari.
Lap 27 – A bit of Hadjar grumpiness over the radio. Was expecting this a bit more after seeing his work in Formula 2. He’ll be less impressed if Oscar Piastri gets past for his 6th place which the McLaren is currently trying to do.
ORDER – VER LEC ANT HAM NOR HAD PIA RUS HUL ALO
Lap 31 – Verstappen is plenty unhappy about his car, and the team eventually relents and pits him for new tyres. Over the last few laps Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli have both caught up with him and the front three were covered by just over two seconds by the time of pitstop. We’ll need to see a special Verstappen stint to win this one now.
Lap 32 – Well, that was easy. Kimi Antonelli eases past Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari for the lead of the race. Leclerc hangs on for a while with MarioKart mode. But the feeling you’re going to see Antonelli flying off into the distance is quite strong.
ORDER – ANT LEC HAM NOR VER HAD PIA RUS LAW GAS
Lap 35 – Battle of two of the most underwhelming drivers of 2026 that aren’t Lance Stroll – Piastri and Russell – continue to battle for 7th as they have more several laps. Battling hard and being ten seconds behind HAdjar in 6th just about sums up both of their seasons.
Lap 36 – For future reference, Verstappen is going just fast enough with just enough laps to go to make the ending interesting. He does have Norris and two Ferrari between him and Antonelli.
Lap 39 – Lewis Hamilton pits for new tyres and rejoins behind Hadjar in 6th. He takes on new hard tyres which is interesting. You’d think they’d go softer, but surely Ferrari know best. Charles Leclerc pits the following lap and drops from second to fourth, and behind Verstappen, who he is probably racing for the final podium now. Pretty sure no one else will have to pit now.
ORDER – ANT NOR VER LEC HAD HAM PIA RUS LAW GAS
Lap 42 – Hamilton passes Hadjar for 5th, which will probably make Hadjar mad, and for Hamilton it’s probably worth half a fist pump.
Lap 43 – Commentary boffins opine that all the different strategies and cars and drivers are shaping up to make it a huge finish. Probably not for first, as Kimi is 15 seconds in front. Behind him it’s Verstappen down by one second to Norris, Leclerc 4.2 seconds behind the Red Bull and Hamilton is too far away in 5th nine second behind.
Lap 46 – A decent battle for second brewing with Norris holding on and Verstappen looking ahead and behind to Charles Leclerc. Ferrari are still talking double podium. That seems unlikely with Hamilton a further 10 second behind this trio.
Lap 47 – Max Verstappen soars past Lando Norris late into the first corner in a great overtaking move, and Leclerc tries to double Norris’ misery but can’t make it happen at the first corner or immediate sweepers. Before the lap is over the Ferrari is ahead with Leclerc better around the slower corners and newer tyres. It’s now a clear battle for second between Leclerc and Verstappen. Antonelli is way too far in front to care.
ORDER – ANT VER LEC NOR HAM HAD PIA RUS LAW GAS
Lap 49 – Charles Leclerc is closing in on Verstappen and priming himself to overtake and then almost out of nowhere flies past the Red Bull into the hairpin towards the end of the lap. He’s almost a second up on Verstappen by the end of the lap. With 6 laps to go he is 16 seconds behind Antonelli, so he’s going as far as he will. Further back Hamilton has eyes on a podium too, but he needs to catch and pass Norris and Verstappen.
Lap 51 – Hamilton eases past Lando Norris for fourth and is five seconds behind Verstappen with five laps to go. Unlikely but worth watching. Meanwhile Bottas is going slowly on the track, not slow like he’s at the back of the grid in his Cadillac as per usual as the new team continues to struggle, more of a the car’s got a big problem and is ready to break.
Lap 52 – Bottas stops on the side of the track and a Virtual Safety Car is called. That’ll hurt Hamilton’s push for third.
VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR CALLED
Lap 53 – It has taken two minutes for a tractor to move a Cadillac about two metres, but now it is done the VSC is ending.
VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR ENDS
Lap 54 – Leclerc edges closer to Antonelli, Hamilton edges closer to Verstappen, but none of it will matter as the gaps are too large to make up in a couple of laps.
FINAL LAP – Kimi Antonelli appears on the coverage for the first time in a while, a good sign you’ve had a pretty race. Another race where he has done the job – pole, win with ease, and driving like a seasoned pro, and within reach of the Championship. All under the age of 21. He technically can’t celebrate with a drink in the US. Leclerc gets second after a good drive and decent strategy, something which doesn’t combine often. Max Verstappen rounds out the top three with a solid weekend. Solid efforts and underwhelming ones down the grid, all covered in our Great and Grape section below. The Championship rolls on to Mexico net weekend, where Antonelli will in all likelihood become World Champion.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line): ANT LEC VER HAM NOR HAD PIA RUS LAW GAS
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
Essentially a Winners and Losers under a different name.
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. 5 points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
THE GREAT-EST – KIMI ANTONELLI
Another win, from pole position, and the Championship is so close he can taste it.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
LANDO NORRIS – Gets the maximum out of a car that is probably not top three, called Team Orders and justified it. Sadly kind of destroying his team mate in the process.
MAX VERSTAPPEN – Another late season charge, becoming a constant force in every session now, and a factor for every race until the end of the season. His unhappiness on the radio is always enjoyable.
CHARLES LECLERC – A really solid run to second, and edging in front of his Ferrari team mate for hopefully a better Championship push from Ferrari in 2027.
LIAM LAWSON – Just another solid Best of the Rest outing. Not a bad musician too.
THE GRAPE-EST – OLIVER BEARMAN
Ok qualifying damaged by an early incident with Pierre Gasly, which cost him a ten second penalty, which he got served when he was already 18th. He eventually became the first DNF of the day to complete the misery.
DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS
OSCAR PIASTRI – Another meh race, team ordered by Norris earlier than he’d like. This 2026 season ain’t working out for him.
GEORGE RUSSELL – Similar to Piastri for an underwhelming experience over the weekend, although his underperformance is worse, because his young team mate is romping the Championship in the same car.
CADILLAC – While they aren’t as hopeless as it was feared pre-season, their back of the grid qualifying and race positions would be less than they wanted for their home race, and progress is hard to see, apart from reliability.
WILLIAMS – When did Williams become barely faster than the Cadillacs. Both drivers are competent
FERRARI – One does wonder how Ferrari turn their weekend pace into mediocrity.
Was it a good race, loads of action, a tense ending, a surprise result or DNF, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest?
We rate the big race itself, so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
PRE RACE ACTION (FP, QUAL, SPRINT, HYPE, OFF TRACK etc) – 3 / 5
Pre race build up is usually pretty good with this race, as Austion looks like a very interesting place to visit in general. Qualifying is interesting enough. The off track, pre-race highlight is Jeremy Clarkson being himself talking to the Sky F1 people.
ON TRACK ACTION (RACE) – 6 / 10
Racing is good enough with enough strategy and overtaking
ANY SURPRISES? – 2 / 5
Not really, this race was kind of typical to the theme of the 2026 F1 season. Same winners, same strugglers.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 4 / 5
The win to Antonelli is within touching distance of the Championship is pretty important.
ENDING – 2 / 5
Nice little battle towards the end between Leclerc and Verstappen but it didn’t last long. Hamilton’s fruitless chase of a podium was some interest but killed off because of a Bottas breakdown and Virtusl Safety Car.
OVERALL RATING – 17 / 30
Just enough of everything to keep one interesting, with some overtaking, strategy, team mate battles, and a couple of incidents early. Probably won’t be remembered in five years time, although may have been if Kimi won the title here, which he didn’t.
