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Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent in Austin

Kimi Antonelli took pole position for the United States Grand Prix on the weekend on which he can potentially clinch his first world title.

The Mercedes driver beat Red Bull's Max Verstappen by 0.179 seconds, with the Dutchman's team-mate Isack Hadjar third ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.

Antonelli whooped with delight as he took his first pole position since the Belgian Grand Prix in July and said: "It feels good to be back."

The 20-year-old Italian will become world champion on Sunday if he wins the race in Austin with Hamilton lower than fourth and Russell lower than eighth.

Hamilton is already below that position having qualified fifth, while Russell will start sixth ahead of the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

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McLaren boss Zak Brown tells Sky Sports on the pit wall that Ferrari are in a league of their own so far this weekend. Lewis Hamilton is purple in the middle sector, but it was Max Verstappen whp was rapid in the first.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton gets us off the mark with a 1:34.833 but that time is quickly beaten by four-time title winner Verstappen. The Dutchman, who is on the soft tyre with the rest of the field, is more than three tenths faster than Hamilton.

Can McLaren mount a challenge for a spot on the front row this weekend?

Zak Brown told Sky Sports on the pit wall during third practice the team could do with some more points and some more wins (they've won two races this season), but he added the diffcult start to the campaign due to the complex nature of the new power units means they've been trying to understand how to maximise their package for most of the year.

Following their scuffle on the final lap of the Singapore sprint, world champion Lando Norris, who also had a lap time deleted in FP3, said he had a telling off from the big bosses for the contact with team-mate Oscar Piastri. The good news is, if the pair qualify close to each other for the United States Grand Prix, they're free to race - but no funny business.

Storm Boelo is bringing more wet and windy weather to large parts of the UK today but over in Austin, the weather is fine and dry for Saturday's third practice and qualifying session.

As for the tyres this weekend, Pirelli have selected the C2 as the hard, the C3 as the medium and the C4 as the soft. All three compounds were used during Friday's track action, with a one-stop using the softs and mediums the most likely race strategy.

Frenchman Isack Hadjar struggled with with overheating front tyres, telling his Red Bull pit wall his run on the soft tyre was "just a disaster".

Charles Leclerc set the pace in yesterday's opening practice sessions at Cota, topping the times ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen in the opening hour and championship leader Kimi Antonelli in the second.

The Ferrari driver was 0.042 seconds quicker than Mercedes' Antonelli in FP2, with Malaysia and Singapore winner Verstappen not too far behind in third place. Lewis Hamilton was fourth fastest, but he was 0.615secs off the pace of his Scuderia team-mate Leclerc.

George Russell, who needs a perfect weekend to keep in touch with Antonelli in the title fight, was fifth, while Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson finished his session above the two McLarens of world champion Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in seventh.

Norris might have more to offer, though, as he failed to set a time on the soft tyre during qualifying runs after making a mistake at Turn 16.

The other Red Bull of Isack Hadjar and Haas' Oliver Bearman completed the top 10 in ninth and 10th respectively. Hadjar was vocal over team radio about the performance of his car, calling it "undriveable" after the session.

The other main talking point yesterday was the dreaded track limits, with plenty of drivers having times deleted throughout each session.