Antonelli’s ninth win at Austin: world title hopes put on hold. Leclerc secures a podium finish for Ferrari

Twenty years and sixty-one days: these could have been the perfect figures to crown the youngest world champion in history, but we’ll have to wait at least one more Grand Prix to celebrate him. Starting from pole position with a flawless start, Kimi Antonelli made no mistakes whatsoever yesterday in Austin. A one-stop strategy; starting on medium tyres and finishing on hards: he pulled away to open up a lead of over fifteen seconds over Leclerc. This is his ninth victory out of eighteen Grand Prix races. Exactly half. A near-dominance, one might say.

Rounding off the podium were Leclerc and Verstappen, with the Ferrari driver so on form that at times it looked as though he might snatch victory in Texas, but a two-stop strategy – the only one among the frontrunners – stood between him and a possible win. Verstappen, on the other hand, didn’t have the pace to keep up with him in the closing stages, whilst Hamilton missed out on a possible podium finish despite having fresher tyres because, having also opted for a second pit stop, a virtual safety car caused by Bottas prevented him from mounting a comeback and overtaking at the right moments. It was also an excellent race for Hadjar who, despite finishing sixth – a result attributable to a start marred by a clutch power delivery issue that cost him third place and a mapping glitch during the restart after the pit stop – helped bring Red Bull back level on points with McLaren in third place in the constructors’ championship.

A great race, but a celebration that was already taking shape in the States slipped away by the narrowest of margins – just one place higher than Antonelli’s team-mate ‘should’ have finished. Mathematical victory actually depended on Hamilton and Russell: for the Ferrari driver to halt Kimi’s run, he needed to finish at least fourth, whilst Russell needed to finish eighth. Hamilton, however, could only manage fifth place, whilst Russell just missed out despite a rather chaotic race, which was compounded by a five-second penalty that he served by bringing forward his pit stop for tyres. The celebrations and the champagne shower have been postponed, at least until Mexico, where he’ll get the real thing rather than the non-alcoholic version like yesterday: for many months to come, in fact, Kimi will have to make do with the ‘junior’ version in the US, as he has to wait until he turns twenty-one to drink alcohol.

Behind him, the news was good for Italia but also bittersweet for Ferrari fans, as Charles Leclerc finished second. Ferrari had dominated all three free practice sessions – twice with the Monegasque driver, once with Lewis Hamilton – and even Q2; in Q3, however, they managed only fourth and fifth fastest times, behind Antonelli, Verstappen and Hadjar. In the race, Leclerc initially disproved the notion that his car is only fast when it doesn’t matter (a pattern also evident in Saturday’s final qualifying session), a scenario that has ‘haunted’ him for years. At the start, he immediately overtook Hadjar alongside Hamilton, attacked Verstappen and, after being pushed back to third place, put in a courageous performance. As mentioned, his two pit stops dropped him back into the pack, but in the closing stages he overtook Norris and then Verstappen, who for once was not flawless: he ran wide at Turn 11, costing him a position he could not recover. Speaking of qualifying, Leclerc had identified the ‘fatal’ gap in the problem with the tyres’ sensitivity to temperature variations of even one or two degrees; in the race, however, he managed to set the fastest lap (his 42nd); Hamilton lost speed on the straights, where the Ferrari’s electric boost ran out before that of its rivals. Not a disaster, with just 276 thousandths separating Hamilton from pole, but another opportunity squandered.

Hadjar’s problems offered Ferrari only partial consolation. Whilst on the one hand there is disappointment at Hamilton missing out on the podium, on the other Hadjar was stuck on the wrong engine map after his pit stop, compromising the entire final stage of the race, whilst Norris, who had got his strategy spot on with a single stop, a move that had seen him climb back up to second place, subsequently paid the price for tyre wear in the closing stages with a performance below par, losing as many as three places when his tyres literally gave out: a historic debacle that has left the outgoing world champion without a podium finish for four consecutive races now.