Kimi Antonelli takes US Grand Prix win but made to wait for F1 title

Andrea Kimi Antonelli won the United States Grand Prix but must wait to be crowned Formula 1 world champion for the first time. 

The 20-year-old Italian secured his ninth victory of a phenomenal 2026 season with a controlled performance at COTA, but with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton finishing fourth, and Mercedes team-mate George Russell eighth, Antonelli could not clinch his maiden F1 world title.

Instead, the title fight will roll onto Mexico City next weekend, where Antonelli will surely become F1’s youngest-ever world champion. 

Formula 1 US Grand Prix: Full race results

Antonelli is 123 points clear of Russell with only 125 points left available in the remaining five races, meaning he only needs to score two points to be crowned world champion at the next race. 

Some 13 seconds behind the dominant Antonelli, Charles Leclerc beat Max Verstappen to second place on the podium, passing the Red Bull driver on lap 49. 

Reigning world champion Lando Norris made a one-stop strategy work as he took fifth behind Hamilton, with the second Red Bull of Isack Hadjar splitting the Red Bulls in sixth ahead of Oscar Piastri. 

Russell picked up a five-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage while battling Piastri on the first lap and had a pretty anonymous run to P8, some 54 seconds behind his team-mate Antonelli. 

Liam Lawson took ninth in the Racing Bulls, while Pierre Gasly claimed the final point on offer for Alpine in 10th.

Valtteri Bottas, Franco Colapinto and Ollie Bearman all failed to reach the finish in Austin in a fairly uneventful 56-lap race.