US Grand Prix 2026: Antonelli wins in Austin but Hamilton's P4 delays the F1 title

Kimi Antonelli won the United States Grand Prix in Austin from pole, but the F1 title has to wait: he leaves Texas 123 points clear with 125 still to play for. The Mercedes driver finished 13.078 seconds ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, with Max Verstappen third, according to the official Formula 1 race report.

The race started at 1am PKT on Monday, so the result landed in Pakistan just before dawn. It is Antonelli's ninth win of the season, GrandPrix.com noted.

Why Antonelli is not champion yet

Going into Sunday, Yahoo Sports set out the maths: Antonelli needed to win with George Russell ninth or lower and Lewis Hamilton fifth or worse. He did his part, and Russell finished eighth, but Hamilton came home fourth. That kept the title mathematically open by two points.

US Grand Prix 2026 result: top 10

Positions 6 to 10 from RaceFans.

How the race was won

Verstappen started alongside Antonelli but made a poor start, and Antonelli led from the first lap. He stopped once and nursed his hard tyres to the flag. A Virtual Safety Car near the end, called when Valtteri Bottas parked his Cadillac, bunched the field briefly. Leclerc took second with a late move, his second P2 in a row. Franco Colapinto, Ollie Bearman and Bottas retired, and Haas scored nothing at its home race.

Drivers' standings after Austin

RaceFans counts 18 of 23 rounds done and 125 points left. A driver is champion once his lead is bigger than the points still available, so with a 123-point cushion Antonelli, 20, can seal the title at the next round unless a rival takes a big chunk out of his lead there.

We set out the qualifying result and the title scenarios in our US Grand Prix preview. More sport is on our sports page.