Antonelli Wins the US Grand Prix on One Stop and Can Clinch the F1 Title in Mexico City

By The Arena Staff

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 26, 2026 — Kimi Antonelli did not get to celebrate a world championship in Texas. He did the next best thing and left everyone else fighting over the scraps.

The 20-year-old Mercedes driver won the United States Grand Prix from pole position on Sunday, finishing 13.078 seconds ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc at the Circuit of the Americas, according to the official Formula 1 results. Red Bull's Max Verstappen was third, Lewis Hamilton fourth for Ferrari and Lando Norris fifth for McLaren. It was Antonelli's ninth win in 18 races this season.

Antonelli had the race won early. He held the lead off the line and was more than two seconds clear after one lap, BBC Sport reported, while Verstappen, Leclerc and Hamilton traded places behind him. Mercedes started him on medium tires while the Red Bulls and Ferraris started on softs, and he made it to the finish on a single stop while nearly everyone else stopped twice.

"It was the result we needed," Antonelli told BBC Sport. "All this time putting work on the new package and finally seeing the result was very pleasant, perfect strategy to call the one-stop."

The best racing was for second. Leclerc got past Verstappen at the start before the Dutchman took the place back at Turn 15 on the opening lap. Their strategies then split, and Leclerc's longer second stint on mediums brought him back onto Verstappen's gearbox. He made the decisive pass into Turn 1 late in the race for his second straight runner-up finish, Formula1.com reported. Verstappen, who had been chasing a third straight win, complained about his car over the radio for much of the afternoon and held off Hamilton by about a second at the flag.

It was a rough day for Antonelli's closest pursuer. George Russell started sixth, picked up a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage in a fight with Oscar Piastri and finished eighth. Isack Hadjar was sixth and Piastri seventh, with Liam Lawson and Pierre Gasly taking the last points. A late Virtual Safety Car, called after Valtteri Bottas pulled his Cadillac off the track, slowed the field near the end.

Antonelli now leads Russell by 123 points. BBC Sport reported that he will be champion at the Mexico City Grand Prix next weekend unless he loses more than 23 points to Russell or more than 24 to Hamilton. If neither Briton wins the race, the title is his wherever he finishes. "I know we are very close," Antonelli said.

Share-card photo: The observation tower at Circuit of the Americas, 2012, by Earl McGehee via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.