Kimi Antonelli delivered when it mattered most at the Circuit of the Americas, snatching pole position for the United States Grand Prix with a decisive Q3 lap that denied Max Verstappen a third consecutive Saturday triumph.
The Mercedes driver clocked a 1m34.035s on his first run in the final segment, putting himself around two tenths clear of Red Bull’s Verstappen and team-mate Isack Hadjar.
Few of the leading contenders found enough time on their final attempts to dislodge the championship leader.
It was Antonelli’s seventh pole of the 2026 season and his first since the summer break, interrupting a weekend in which Verstappen and Ferrari had appeared to hold a slight advantage over Mercedes around COTA’s demanding 5.5km layout.
Ferrari misses its opportunity
Charles Leclerc had looked a serious contender after leading Q2 with a 1m34.198s, ahead of Antonelli and George Russell, but the Ferrari driver could manage only fourth when the pressure peaked.
Team-mate Lewis Hamilton secured fifth, while Russell endured a frustrating session in sixth.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and reigning world champion Lando Norris followed in seventh and eighth respectively, Norris having set the pace in Q1.
Norris’s 1m35.029s put him ahead of the Ferrari and Red Bull contenders in the opening segment. Antonelli, Russell and Piastri also progressed on medium tyres, preserving a set of softs for later in qualifying.
Lawson sacrifices his Q3 run
Racing Bulls enjoyed a strong showing, with Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson both making the top ten. However, Lindblad faces a five-place grid penalty for taking a new combustion engine, prompting Lawson to sit out Q3 in a tactical move intended to limit the damage to his team-mate’s starting position.
Lawson will consequently start ninth, with Lindblad dropping to 14th.
Piastri, meanwhile, needed a second Q2 attempt after initially sitting provisionally 10th. Late improvements from both Racing Bulls drivers helped eliminate Alpine and Audi from the fight for the final Q3 places.
Pierre Gasly narrowly missed the Q2 cutoff by just 0.022s, leading the eliminated drivers ahead of Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto.
Franco Colapinto, Fernando Alonso and Oliver Bearman also failed to progress, with Bearman losing a lap good enough for 13th after exceeding track limits at Turn 11.
Bortoleto nevertheless advanced to Q2 in an effort to provide Hulkenberg with a slipstream, despite facing a back-of-the-grid start for a new power unit.
Colapinto will also start from the back after receiving a 10-place penalty for new engine control electronics.
Alonso squeezed through Q1 in 16th, relegating Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll and Haas’s Esteban Ocon. Williams endured another difficult session, with Carlos Sainz 19th, Alex Albon 20th and Cadillac pairing Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas completing the order in 21st and 22nd.
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