Formula 1 in Texas arrived after its outing in Singapore with one huge question. Could Kimi Antonelli become the youngest World Champion in Formula 1 history? Austin represented his first mathematical chance to seal the crown.
Austin answered almost everything except that. Antonelli took pole, controlled the race and claimed his ninth victory of the season. Charles Leclerc finished second, Max Verstappen third and Lewis Hamilton fourth. George Russell took eighth, which pushed the title decision on to Mexico.
Ferrari Sweeps Practice and Loses Pole
Friday belonged to Charles Leclerc. He led FP1 with a 1:36.052, only 0.084 seconds ahead of Verstappen. Norris took third, while Russell and Antonelli completed the top five.
Leclerc repeated the result in FP2. His 1:35.291 beat Antonelli by 0.042 seconds, with Verstappen third. McLaren slipped to seventh and eighth with Norris and Piastri.
Saturday strengthened the Ferrari story. Hamilton topped FP3 in 1:34.893 ahead of Verstappen and Leclerc. A quicker Leclerc lap disappeared because of track limits. Ferrari had therefore topped every practice session. Formula 1 in Texas looked ready for a red front row challenge. Formula 1 itself considered Ferrari the favourite heading into qualifying.
Qualifying had other ideas.
Leclerc during Friday practice at Austin, Texas; Photo Credit: Scuderia Ferrari
Antonelli Produces the Lap Austin Did Not See Coming
The obvious story before Q3 was Ferrari pace. The surprise was how decisively Antonelli changed it. His first Q3 run produced a 1:34.035. Nobody beat it. Even Mercedes did not expect quite that level of performance from the championship leader.
Verstappen finished 0.179 seconds behind. Hadjar delivered one of the weekend’s biggest surprises in third, only 0.036 seconds behind his team mate. Leclerc and Hamilton managed fourth and fifth. Toto Wolff admitted that he had expected Antonelli to fight around the second row. Instead, the Italian nailed his first Q3 attempt and secured pole by nearly two tenths.
McLaren went the other way. Piastri qualified seventh, while Norris finished eighth after losing his quickest Q3 lap to track limits. Both drivers also described a car that remained difficult to extract performance from. Antonelli had his seventh pole of the season. More importantly, he had track position for his first championship match point.
One Stop Strategy Becomes the Winning Move
Antonelli launched cleanly and kept the lead into Turn 1. Leclerc jumped Verstappen at the start, although the Red Bull recovered second during the opening lap. Then strategy split the contenders.
Mercedes kept Antonelli on a one stop plan. Verstappen and both Ferraris used two stops. That gave the chasing group fresher tyres, but also more ground to recover. Antonelli never gave them enough of it.
He controlled the race and eventually won by 13.078 seconds over Leclerc. Verstappen crossed the line another 4.407 seconds behind the Ferrari. Formula 1 in Texas therefore became Antonelli’s ninth victory of 2026. It also supported Mercedes’ view that the team was learning how to unlock its latest update package, first introduced in Malaysia.
The pressure of a possible title celebration never changed his race. That may have been the most impressive part.
Ferrari Recovers What Qualifying Took Away
Ferrari lost the pole fight, but Sunday confirmed its practice pace was real. Leclerc made the more visible recovery. His two stop strategy gave him enough tyre life to attack late. After getting past Norris, he chased Verstappen and took second during the closing phase.
Hamilton also moved forward. He finished fourth, only 1.030 seconds behind Verstappen. That result did more than give Ferrari another strong finish. It also kept Hamilton in the championship. Antonelli needed Hamilton to finish fifth or lower to clinch the crown in Austin. Fourth place stopped that scenario from unfolding.
Ferrari left Austin without the win it had threatened throughout practice. Yet second and fourth still turned a frustrating qualifying session into a valuable Sunday.
Lewis Hamilton in garage during Formula 1 in Texas event; Photo Credit: Scuderia Ferrari
McLaren Turns a Difficult Weekend Into a Warning
McLaren started with some promise. Norris placed third in FP1, but the picture changed quickly. By FP2, Norris and Piastri were seventh and eighth. FP3 brought sixth for Piastri and eighth for Norris. Qualifying then left them together on the fourth row.
Sunday did not repair the damage.
Norris used a one stop strategy and briefly gained track position late in the race. Fresher cars came back at him. He finished fifth, while Piastri took seventh.
That gave McLaren 16 points in Austin. Red Bull collected 23 through Verstappen and Hadjar. McLaren had entered the weekend seven points ahead, so those results leave the teams level on 355 points.
For a team that won in Hungary and Zandvoort, that is a sharp change in direction. McLaren itself admitted that the MCL40 had potential but remained difficult to exploit. Austin turned that weakness into a full weekend problem.
The Title Waits for Mexico
Antonelli did his part. Pole became victory, and the pressure never became visible.
Russell and Hamilton delayed the celebration. Russell finished eighth despite a five second penalty, while Hamilton took fourth. Those positions kept both drivers mathematically alive.
Antonelli now has 365 points. Russell sits on 242 and Hamilton on 241. That gives Antonelli a 123 point advantage over Russell and 124 over Hamilton.
That is how close Austin came to ending the title fight. Before the race, Antonelli needed Russell outside the top eight and Hamilton outside the top four. Both rivals landed exactly on the positions they needed to survive.
Formula 1 in Texas still delivered a clear message. Ferrari has pace, Red Bull remains dangerous and McLaren suddenly looks vulnerable. Antonelli, however, keeps doing the most important thing.
He keeps winning.
Mexico City now becomes his second championship opportunity. Antonelli needs only two more points, meaning ninth place would secure the title even if Russell wins.
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Formula 1 will return from October 30 to November 1 for the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Feature Image Credit: Red Bull Content Pool