AUSTIN — Championship leader Kimi Antonelli claimed his seventh pole of the 2026 season at the United States Grand Prix, defeating Max Verstappen in a closely fought qualifying session at the 5.5km Circuit of the Americas. The Mercedes driver surged to the top with his first run in Q3, posting a 1m34.035s to head the Red Bull pair of Verstappen and Isack Hadjar by around two tenths as few frontrunners improved on their final laps.
It was Antonelli's first pole since the summer break and denied Verstappen a third consecutive pole, breaking a weekend trend that had seen Verstappen and the two Ferraris hold a slight edge over Mercedes. Charles Leclerc, who had led Q2, qualified fourth with Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton fifth, while George Russell was sixth for Mercedes ahead of the McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. Racing Bulls pair Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson completed the top 10, though Lindblad faces a five-place penalty for a new combustion engine and Lawson opted to sit out Q3 to minimise damage for his team-mate; Lawson will start ninth with Lindblad set for 14th.
Leclerc had headed Q2 with a 1m34.198s on his second run, beating Antonelli, Russell and an early Verstappen benchmark. Piastri needed a second effort to climb from provisional 10th to sixth, while Lindblad and Lawson found late improvements to move into the top 10 and knock out the Alpine and Audi cars. Pierre Gasly missed the cut by just 0.022s for Alpine, ahead of Audi's Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto, with Franco Colapinto, Fernando Alonso and Oliver Bearman also eliminated after Bearman had a lap quick enough for 13th deleted for track limits at Turn 11.
Bortoleto is set for a back-of-the-grid start after taking a new Audi power unit but advanced to Q2 to give Hulkenberg a slipstream on COTA's long straight, while Colapinto will be docked 10 grid places for new engine control electronics and will join Bortoleto on the back row on Sunday. In Q1, reigning world champion Norris led the way with a 1m35.029s after two runs to head the four Ferrari and Red Bull cars, while Antonelli, Russell and Piastri all progressed on medium tyres to save a set of softs.
Alonso's 1m36.240s was enough for 16th to reach Q2 at the expense of Haas driver Esteban Ocon and Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll, who lamented a lack of rear grip. Aston Martin's improvement left Williams as the slowest team outside newcomer Cadillac, with Carlos Sainz heading Alex Albon in 19th, while Sergio Perez in 21st again had the measure of Cadillac team-mate Valtteri Bottas. The result follows Lewis Hamilton saying Antonelli deserves to be champion, with the Mercedes youngster now well placed to extend his championship lead from the front on Sunday.