Kimi Antonelli will aim to finish his march to the Formula One title in style as he heads to Mexico City next weekend on the brink of the championship.
The 20-year-old will become the sport’s youngest champion if he finishes ninth or higher next Sunday, after securing a resounding victory at the United States Grand Prix in a blistering demonstration of why he will be this season’s deserving title winner.
Antonelli roared home from pole ahead of Charles Leclerc by a dominant 13.0 seconds, delivering everything he needed to in his first shot at clinching the crown.
But to be celebrating the title in Texas, the Italian needed slip-ups from his rivals. Lewis Hamilton extended the championship race by finishing fourth and George Russell just about did his bit despite only managing a disappointing eighth.
Antonelli now holds a whopping 123-point lead over Russell, 125 left to play for, with Hamilton a point further back.
“We are very close. We try to finish on a high and hopefully we can clinch it very soon,” Antonelli said.
“I am going to approach with the same mindset – to have fun and fight for another win. Would be best to finish well, that’s the goal but just going to try and enjoy the rest of the season.”
Antonelli leapt from his Mercedes and launched himself into the arms of his mechanics for the ninth time in this dominant season.
His joy at another brilliant win was evident in his radio messages, roaring: “Yes! Let’s go! That’s how we do it! Let’s go!”
His ever-calm race engineer Pete Bonnington praised his charge for avoiding his usual penchant for pushing track limits, saying: “You’re a good lad!”
“I am very happy because I have a very good group of people around me in the team and my father who always comes,” Antonelli added.
“A great group of people that help me to be more relaxed and not worry about these kind of things, help me to block out the noise and allow me to enjoy the weekend and perform.
“On Thursday a lot of talk about championship and stuff and I just try to not worry about that and deliver the best result I could. Today was very important for me and the team.”
Antonelli roared away from the line to see off Max Verstappen and executed a one-stop strategy to complete a comfortable win. Leclerc passed the Dutchman in the closing stages to seal second for successive races.
Hamilton was on the cusp of opening the door to Antonelli’s celebrations, but reeled in Isack Hadjar and Lando Norris late on to secure fourth.
Russell started sixth but was hit by a five-second penalty and trudged home eighth having failed to match his Mercedes team-mate’s exploits.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, whose belief in Antonelli never wavered despite a difficult debut season last year, described the win as “another small step”.
If that felt like an understatement, the 54-year-old was far more effusive after the race as he hailed the Italian’s best victory of his dominant season – better even than his Monza win from the back of the grid.
“The race of a champion who isn’t the champion yet,” Wolff said.
“I’ve said that this is probably the best race I’ve seen, but my problem is that I don’t remember past races. Monza was actually also pretty good, obviously with the advantage of the home crowd.
“But the headline is this is the best we can keep.”
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