Antonelli secures pole position in qualifying at United States GP

Austin, Oct 25

Kimi Antonelli secured pole position at the United States Grand Prix, edging out the Red Bull pair of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar to set the fastest time in qualifying.

On a weekend when the Italian could be crowned the World Champion, his first lap of 1m 34.035s in Q3 was enough to take pole, with no one able to find the improvements needed to challenge him in the final minutes, with the Italian sealing pole position for the seventh time in 2026, F1 reports.

"We got a pole, so we'll try to win tomorrow," said Antonelli. "Max has been very quick, and also Isack did an incredible job in qualifying. It’s not going to be easy, but we’ll try to get a good start and hopefully lead into Turn 1, and then we'll try to set the pace, even though it’s going to be very tight. I’m very happy with qualifying – Q3 was very tough with the wind, very gusty and unpredictable. I'm happy that we stuck it on the pole," he added.

Verstappen was nearly two-tenths off the pace in P2 as he went marginally quicker than Hadjar and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, while Lewis Hamilton settled for fifth place.

Mercedes' George Russell was a frustrating P6 ahead of McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who moved up a place after his teammate Lando Norris’ time was deleted for track limits, relegating the Briton to P8.

Although Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson completed the top 10, the former will receive a five-place penalty for exceeding the permitted internal combustion engine allocation.

Pierre Gasly came close to squeezing into the top 10, but ultimately missed out by just 0.022s in 11th, qualifying ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto as Audi’s tow strategy didn't work out.

The 2026 United States Grand Prix is set to begin 1:30 AM IST on Monday.