Kimi Antonelli to Launch Title Charge from Pole in Austin

Andrea Kimi Antonelli claimed his seventh pole position of the Formula 1 season after storming to the top in qualifying for the United States Grand Prix. For the Italian Mercedes driver, this marks his first pole since the Belgian Grand Prix back in July.

Antonelli, who has the opportunity to wrap up the world championship title in Austin, secured top spot at the Circuit of the Americas with a lap time of 1:34.035, edging out Max Verstappen by 0.179 seconds. In doing so, he halted the four-time world champion's qualifying win streak, leaving the Dutchman to start from second.

Verstappen's Red Bull teammate Isack Hadjar will start from third, finishing 0.215s off Antonelli to share the second row with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. The second Scuderia car of Lewis Hamilton will line up fifth, with the seven-time champion joined on row three by his former teammate George Russell.

McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris will lock out the fourth row. The advantage initially appeared to be with the world champion, but he had his best lap deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 19, dropping him behind his teammate. Arvid Lindblad was effectively the slowest runner at the end of the session, while his Racing Bulls teammate Liam Lawson failed to take to the track during the decisive 13-minute shootout.

Pierre Gasly narrowly missed out on Q3, ending Q2 just 0.022s behind Lawson. Joining the Alpine driver on the sidelines were Nico Hülkenberg, Gabriel Bortoleto, Franco Colapinto, Fernando Alonso, and Oliver Bearman. Haas's British driver had his quickest time deleted for running off track at Turn 11, though even with that lap reinstated, he would not have advanced to the top-ten shootout and would have split Audi teammates Hülkenberg and Bortoleto.

Esteban Ocon finished 0.291s adrift of Alonso in the battle for 16th at the end of Q1, settling for 17th and bowing out after the opening 18 minutes. Eliminated alongside the Frenchman were Lance Stroll, Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon, Sergio Pérez, and Valtteri Bottas.

However, they will all move up the order owing to grid penalties for Colapinto and Bortoleto, who have been hit with 10-place and 80-place grid drops respectively. As a result, the duo will share the final row, with Colapinto starting 21st and Bortoleto 22nd. The final penalised driver is Lindblad, who drops five places on the grid to start from 14th.

The United States Grand Prix, Round 18 of the 2026 Formula 1 season, gets underway today at 22:00 Bulgarian time and will be covered live on Sportal.bg.