As he proved for at least the ninth time this season, Kimi Antonelli’s driving skills need precious little honing. But he could use a little extra experience when it comes to manifesting.

A near-full moon hung over the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, on the night of Oct 24, when we bumped into him in the paddock.

“Look at that moon, Kimi,” my friend said to him. “It’s almost a full one, and it’s just begging you to manifest what you want.”

Antonelli grinned at his race engineer Pete Bonnington, who had been in a similar role for years at Mercedes with Lewis Hamilton.

The curly-haired 20-year-old is on the cusp of becoming Italy’s first world champion in 73 years.

“I know exactly what I want to manifest,” he laughed.

That was the win, and for teammate George Russell to finish ninth or lower and Hamilton fifth or lower. That would have made him the spiritual successor to the great Alberto Ascari here in Texas – job done.

And for a while, that seemed so close.

Mercedes had opted to start the race on the medium-compound Pirelli tyres. But Red Bull and Ferrari had gone for the faster soft-compound rubber.

After surprising everyone with a superb pole position on Oct 24, beating Max Verstappen and Red Bull, Antonelli lit out at the start. And as the Dutchman found himself overtaken by Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari and challenged by Hamilton’s, before repassing the Monegasque before the opening lap was done, the Italian pulled out a lead of 2.3sec.

And against all predictions, on those medium tyres, he pulled away and built a three-second lead when Verstappen had to pit for fresh tyres – another set of softs – after only 13 laps. Ferrari quickly followed suit, leaving Antonelli to run until lap 24. That meant that canny Mercedes could get by with one stop, whereas the others were committed to two.

So at one stage we had Antonelli leading, Hamilton fifth and Russell eighth, and if Mercedes’ second driver dropped one more place, the planets would have been fully aligned for Antonelli, and his manifesting would have delivered.

In the end, it didn’t work out because Hamilton eventually finished fourth, right on Verstappen’s gearbox, and Russell stayed eighth. This means that, heading to Mexico this weekend, Antonelli must beat Russell by two points and Hamilton by one.

In the current circumstances, not the arduous task one might think.

It was, as team boss Toto Wolff said, an exceptional drive from Antonelli. Neither he nor the Mercedes team put a foot wrong all afternoon, and they showed exceptional pace on the unfancied medium tyre, allied to some excellent strategic decision-making, thus turning around a weekend that had looked rather bleak on Oct 23, when Ferrari and Red Bull had been very strong.

At that stage, either of them looked the most likely winner – Ferrari bringing a small upgrade that helped make the car more drivable, Red Bull building on Verstappen’s recent run of successes, which included victories in Bahrain/Malaysia and Singapore. It still seemed that Mercedes didn’t fully understand their own upgrade that was introduced in the former race. But they got their heads down, found the set-up that helped Antonelli to that surprise pole and chose exactly the right tyres.

Their one-stop strategy enabled Antonelli to make his stop, then retake the lead as Verstappen and Leclerc had to pit again on laps 31 and 39, respectively. Then, on their own fresher rubber – mediums for Verstappen and hards for Leclerc – they ought to have had the chance to catch the Mercedes as their tyres wore down. But Antonelli managed to keep them alive, and neither Verstappen nor Leclerc, who overtook the Dutchman for second place on the 49th lap, had the pace to catch the Mercedes.

As their trackside engineering director observed: “There were encouraging signs with the car pace, although since the update it does feel like the set-up window has become a little harder to hit. Operationally, though, the team did a very good job. The strategy decisions weren’t clear-cut, but we held our nerve, made the right call to stick with the one stop and the pit stops were solid.

“Most of all, Kimi should be incredibly pleased with his performances. It was a difficult Friday, but what he produced in qualifying, and the race today, was exceptional.”

Indeed, it was. And surely, he will successfully manifest that elusive crown in a week’s time.