Antonelli Dominates Austin GP but Championship Waits Until Mexico

This is an exciting race weekend ahead; the biggest news is that Kimi Antonelli could be crowned world champion after this race, with 5 more races to go. For Antonelli to win the championship. He needs Hamilton to finish P5 or higher and his teammate Russell to finish P9 or lower, while he wins the Grand Prix.

A few special liveries hit Austin; one of them is Haas’s Godzilla Minus Zero partnership, which has a blue design on the car along with the image of Godzilla. Several American sponsors are promoted on the cars and at the track.

FP1 begins, and Verstappen, although he is setting the fastest laps, is unhappy with his car setup as Russell suffers a bad lock-up at turn 1. Leclerc takes the top spot in this practice session, followed by Verstappen and Norris.

Russell and Leclerc get into a battle in FP2, and Alonso also has a close encounter with Russell and is unhappy. The final laps show Leclerc on top again, with Antonelli just behind. Hadjar has a frightening moment where he nearly goes into Albon in FP3, and it’s another Ferrari on top, with Hamilton setting the quickest lap.

Can Antonelli come out on top?

The cars out in Q1 are both Cadillac cars followed by both Williams drivers. Alonso just sneaks into Q2, but his teammate Stroll is out, and Ocon finishes in 17th. Albon is obviously disappointed as the back of Alonso’s car is on fire; let’s hope they can get that out and in time for Q2.

Three drivers still in Q2 will be receiving grid penalties for the race: Lindblad will take a 5-place penalty, Colapinto will receive a 10-place penalty. Bortoleto has an 80-place grid penalty, all because they are exceeding their limit of power unit parts this season. The teammates of these drivers will hope to get a tow during qualifying to give them a better chance for the race start.

Alonso is unable to get out of Q2 in 15th, joined by both Audi drivers and Colapinto. Bearman suffers from a track deletion so comes in 16th, and Lawson just managed to squeeze into Q3, kicking Gasly down into 11th.

A nail-biting qualifying finish for Antonelli as he swoops in and secures a pole position on a very important weekend for him. Redbull success as Verstappen will start beside Antonelli and Hadjar just behind his teammate. Leclerc will start 4th with Hamilton 5th. Norris improves slightly to place 6th, but his last lap time gets deleted due to exceeding track limits, so he goes down to 8th.

A tough qualifying for Russell as he only manages 6th; maybe the pressure got to him? Piastri takes 7th, followed by both Racing Bulls to complete the top 10 cars.

Will Antonelli be crowned the world champion tomorrow? Time will only tell…

Let’s get racing!

Antonelli’s had a good start and swoops ahead, and it’s all drama behind as Verstappen and Leclerc are fighting, and Leclerc takes over. Hadjar has a troubled start and loses some places to the other Ferrari as Hamilton sits in 4th. Verstappen manages to get ahead of Leclerc into the 2nd lap.

Russell secures 6th place, fending off both McLarens whilst Antonelli is already building a gap after avoiding the drama at the start. Hulkenburg and Alonso have had a bad start, falling 4 places below where they started.

Lawson and Bearman bang wheels coming around the first corner as Hamilton and Leclerc also bumped into each other at the same corner. Sainz got in too tight to the pit wall with Lindblad by him and took some damage to the car.

A brief virtual safety car to clear off the track a part of Albon’s car that went flying off in a tangle with Alonso. Stroll comments that Colapinto has parts coming off his car, and we see a couple of yellow flags waved briefly to remove debris from the track.

McLaren order Piastri to swap with Norris, who is seemingly showing quicker pace, so he is up into 7th and chasing down Russell in 6th. It’s worse news for Russell as he’s given a 5-second penalty for gaining an advantage when leaving the track in a fight with Piastri at the start.

We’re 10 laps in and so much excitement in this race already. Antonelli is now 3 seconds ahead of Verstappen and striding to 1st. Bearman is ordered to swap positions with his teammate Ocon to try and get Gasly in 10th place.

Alonso and Albon are in a tough battle, swapping places and fighting for 15th place, as Bearman is slowly falling down the order. Now in 14th place, there could be a problem with his car. On lap 13, they’ve called Verstappen in to pit for new soft tyres very early, but it could be to his advantage as he comes out 7th behind Piastri.

Hamilton is called in to pit a lap later, and he comes out behind Lawson in 9th. This has started a domino of cars to pit, such as Leclerc and Piastri. Verstappen is now fighting Norris for 4th, but not for long, as Norris is called into the pits but has a slow stop and comes out 9th. Norris is on a one-stop strategy as he changes onto a hard tyre on lap 17; it might’ve been too early for him to pit.

Verstappen is closing in on Russell in 3rd, who hasn’t pitted yet and dives down the inside and gets ahead. Bearman’s race is going worse as he receives a 10-second penalty for a collision with Gasly from the start. On lap 22, they call Russell into the pit, who will also need to serve his penalty and a few laps later Antonelli is called into the pit. He has a quick pit stop and comes out 4th as we are still waiting for Hadjar to pit, who’s running in 2nd.

One-stop versus two-stop

Antonelli is trying to do a one-stop strategy. Hadjar is also doing that as he is called in to pit and comes out 6th, and Piastri is all over the back of him. Bearman is called in to retire after serving his penalty and suffering damage from the incident with Gasly.

Hadjar is struggling on the hard tyres, and Piastri is desperate to get ahead and up into 6th. We’re nearly halfway through this race, and currently Verstappen is in 1st but will need to pit again, and Leclerc in 2nd, who will also need to pit again. Antonelli is in 3rd awaiting these pit stops unless these cars can go all the way on the one stop.

Verstappen is having problems with his radio and his car and is obviously not happy as Leclerc is catching up to him. He’s called in to pit, but it’s a slow stop, and he comes out in 5th. Antonelli swiftly overtakes Leclerc and regains the lead, but Leclerc is fighting to stay with him.

Russell is catching up to Piastri again. They are battling for 7th as Verstappen is now on medium tyres and seems to be much faster, setting the quickest laps as he’s in 5th place. On lap 37, Colapinto receives instructions to retire his car as well due to damage to his car.

Hulkenberg overtakes Ocon and moves up into 12th as Russell takes a look at overtaking Piastri, but Piastri defends. Hamilton is called for his 2nd pit stop, and Hamilton has a good stop and comes out in 6th ahead of Piastri. A lap later, Leclerc has his next pit stop and comes out 4th ahead of Hadjar.

Verstappen is looking strong and is about 16 seconds behind Antonelli, and Norris is in between them. They are going to try to succeed with the one-stop strategy, so Norris needs to hold off Verstappen for 15 more laps to go.

Hamilton overtakes Hadjar and is up into 6th, and Leclerc is catching up to Verstappen in 3rd. Norris is holding steady in 2nd and managing to keep Verstappen at bay for now, with Leclerc catching up. Antonelli is 14 seconds ahead of Norris and is clearly in control of this race.

At this current moment, with Hamilton in 5th and Russell in 8th (fighting Piastri for 7th), Antonelli will not win the driver world championship at this race. Norris is trying hard to hold off Verstappen and Leclerc, who are within a second, but Norris is on very old tyres.

9 laps to go and Verstappen dives around the outside and gets ahead of Norris, and then Leclerc fights with Norris and, for now, sits behind him. But Leclerc is very close to him. Norris locks up, and Leclerc quickly overtake shim up into 3rd, and Norris can only hold on to 4th.

Hamilton is 6.5 seconds behind Norris and will be trying to catch up to him before the race finishes. Verstappen and Leclerc are fighting for 2nd place within a second of each other. McLaren have asked Norris to pit, but he’s refused and wants to stay out with 6 more laps to go, but it’s likely Hamilton will catch up to him.

Leclerc dives ahead of Verstappen with pure speed and gets ahead, moving up into 2nd place, and Verstappen has to slot into 3rd behind him. Hamilton dives down the inside and gets ahead of Norris into 4th.

Bottas is driving slowly and stops due to an engine problem; he pulls off to the side. It brings out a virtual safety car for a couple of laps, but no one decides to pit as there are only 3 more laps to go in this race. Hamilton is 4 seconds behind Verstappen, so we will see if he can reach him and take 3rd place off Verstappen.

Antonelli wins the Austin Grand Prix in a dominant display, finishing 13.078 seconds ahead of Leclerc in 2nd place. Verstappen hangs on to 3rd, and Hamilton takes 4th place. Norris could only manage 5th, with Hajar just behind him in 6th. Piastri finishes ahead of Russell in 7th, and Russell in 8th, a difficult race for him. Lawson takes 9th, and Gasly receives the final available point, finishing in 10th.

He doesn’t win the driver world championship this weekend, but he could win next weekend, when we race in Mexico.

See you then!