Controlled Strategy Secures Antonelli United States GP Race Victory

A commanding drive from pole position saw Andrea Kimi Antonelli win the United States Grand Prix race, crossing the line 13.078 seconds clear of Charles Leclerc. Starting on medium tyres while the bulk of the front-runners gambled on softs, the Mercedes driver never looked troubled, surviving two Safety Car periods to take the ninth Grand Prix victory of his career.

With George Russell labouring home in eighth place, Antonelli’s advantage in the drivers’ championship grew from 102 to 123 points, taking him to 365 points at the summit. With only five rounds remaining and a maximum of 125 points still on the table for any single competitor, the title race has tilted almost entirely in the Italian’s favour.

Strategy splits: Medium compound provides the decisive platform

The foundation of Antonelli’s afternoon was laid on the grid. While the majority of the top ten elected to start on soft tyres, Mercedes fitted mediums to Antonelli’s car, a choice matched among the front runners by only George Russell and McLaren pair Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Antonelli managed the yellow-walled rubber across the first 24 laps, pitting under control to bolt on hard tyres for the remaining 32 laps to the finish.

Ferrari attempted to put Leclerc on the offensive with a two-stop strategy. The Monegasque started on softs, pitted on lap 15 for mediums, and then took hards on lap 40. Although Leclerc secured the fastest lap of the race with a 1:37.976 on lap 42, the two-stop approach failed to bridge the gap to the leader. Lewis Hamilton duplicated Leclerc’s soft-medium-hard path to finish fourth, 18.515 seconds behind the winner.

Red Bull also went down an aggressive route for Max Verstappen, who took the final podium place in third, 17.485 seconds adrift. The team ran a two-stop delta by keeping Verstappen on softs across two stints (laps 1-13 and 14-31) before switching to mediums on lap 32. In contrast, Red Bull split their garage, putting Isack Hadjar on a one-stop soft-to-hard run that delivered sixth place.

In all, one-stop runners dominated the top ten, taking seven of the first ten positions. Soft-to-hard was the most prevalent strategy among the finishers, used by Hadjar, Liam Lawson, Pierre Gasly, and Nico Hülkenberg. Racing Bulls also split their tactical approach: Lawson took ninth on a one-stop, while Arvid Lindblad finished 12th after stopping twice. The endurance prize went to Piastri, who completed a mammoth 41-lap stint on the hard compound after stopping on lap 16 to finish seventh, two places behind teammate Norris in fifth.

Penalties and track limits unsettle the midfield order

While Antonelli enjoyed clean air, proceedings behind him were far more fractured. George Russell endured a scruffy race, picking up a five-second time penalty on lap 9 for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. Russell also topped the offending list for track limits, accumulating four of the 28 lap deletions handed out by race control during the afternoon.

The stewards were kept occupied throughout the 56 laps, investigating or noting eight separate incidents. Oliver Bearman received a ten-second time penalty on lap 19 for causing a collision, marking the start of a miserable afternoon for the Haas driver, who subsequently retired on lap 24. Two other drivers failed to reach the chequered flag, with Franco Colapinto retiring after 35 laps and Valtteri Bottas parking his Cadillac after lap 48, prompting the two Safety Car interventions.

The Circuit of the Americas layout inevitably punished minor errors. Piastri and Fernando Alonso each lost three laps to track limits deletions, with Alonso tumbling from 12th on the grid to finish 16th. Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll travelled in the opposite direction, recovering seven spots from 22nd to 15th, while Audi‘s Gabriel Bortoleto gained eight positions to finish 13th from 21st on the grid.

The race featured plenty of movement lower down, with timing screens registering 220 on-track position changes. Williams driver Alexander Albon completed the most overtakes of anyone with 17, finishing 17th just ahead of Carlos Sainz, while Gasly took the final point in tenth for Alpine. At the sharp end, however, Mercedes’ haul leaves them leading the constructors’ championship on 607 points, 133 clear of Ferrari.

The championship heads directly south for the Mexico City Grand Prix at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez on 1 November, where Antonelli will have his first opportunity to seal the drivers’ crown.

Timing data: Jolpica-F1, tyres and race control: OpenF1. Charts and results card by Slip Stream GP.

This report was written automatically with the help of AI (Google Gemini), from public timing data. Every number in the tables and charts comes straight from the data. Spotted a mistake? Tell me.

Published by

Pasindu Senavirathna

Data

Jolpica-F1, OpenF1, Wikidata and Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and MET Norway

Last updated

26 Oct 2026, 00:41