Italian wunderkind Kimi Antonelli took another step toward his first Formula One championship by claiming his ninth race of the year at the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.

Antonelli, 20, capitalised on his pole position and sailed to a time of 1:35:16.650 at the Circuit of the Americas on Sunday, beating Charles Leclerc of Monaco by a comfortable 13.078 seconds.

With five races to go, Antonelli does not have the championship wrapped up quite yet, but his lead over Mercedes teammate George Russell of Great Britain expanded to 123 points.

Russell must win the next race in Mexico City to remain in contention for the championship; otherwise, it will go to Antonelli, who has come to dominate the sport in his second F1 campaign.

“I’m aware [securing the championship] is close, but the mindset doesn’t change,” Antonelli said post-race. “I want to finish the season on a high, to go into 2027 with high hopes.”

The strategy for Antonelli and Mercedes paid off. While others chose to pit twice during the 56-lap race, Antonelli held on until Lap 25 to pit and did not visit the pit lane again.

“It was a perfect way to end the weekend; it was an incredible team effort, especially from strategy to believe in me and go for one stop,” Antonelli said.

Antonelli won five Grands Prix in a row early this season, one of which was the Miami Grand Prix. He is now 2-for-2 in the United States this season, with the Las Vegas Grand Prix still to come in November.

Max Verstappen, the four-time F1 champion for Red Bull Racing, rounded out the podium 17.485 seconds behind Antonelli. After rattling off every championship from 2021 to 2024, Verstappen has been mathematically eliminated from this year’s chase and will go two years without a world title.

“Our overall pace was not good enough, and the tyres we had available were not the right ones,” Verstappen said. “We still managed to get on the podium, maybe a bit lucky with the [Virtual Safety Car] at the end.”

A Virtual Safety Car was deployed after Valtteri Bottas’s Cadillac stopped on the track on Lap 52. It lasted until the penultimate lap, by which time nobody would be catching up to Antonelli.

Mercedes grew its lead in the constructors’ standings to 133 points over Ferrari — 607 points to Ferrari’s 474.

Wolff hails Antonelli’s best race yet

“On Kimi’s side, the main headline is that for me [that’s] the best race that he’s delivered so far,” Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said.

“Getting off the start with the inferior tyre and then controlling it [the race] at all times. The race of a champion who isn’t the champion yet, but exceptional.

“I think he’s outperformed the car. His driving style just glues with the car.”

Wolff, reminded that Antonelli has had some special wins already this season, including at his home Italian Grand Prix from the back of the grid as well as Monaco and Spa, accepted that sometimes he struggled to remember past races.

“Both of them were pretty good,” he said in reference to Monza. “But the headline, this is the best, we can keep.”

Antonelli was happy to agree with the boss.

“I think it was one of the best, because of how we built up during the weekend,” he told reporters.

“And, you know, it was a great team effort as well today, especially with the strategy, believing in the one-stop. And, yeah, it was a really great team effort, and they all deserve this result today.

“Monza, we clearly had the fastest car. We were just super quick, so of course it was incredibly special coming from the back,” he added.

“But it was also a track where it was relatively easy to overtake, and we were so quick. But definitely, Monza was a super special one, and one that I will remember forever. But, you know, this one probably, in terms of execution, was better … the way we built the performance throughout the weekend was very good.”