Austin: Kimi Antonelli won the United States Grand Prix, taking another step towards clinching the Drivers’ Championship, edging out Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen in a strategic race.
This is Antonelli’s ninth Grand Prix victory of the season. He is now on the brink of securing his maiden Drivers’ Championship after the US GP win, edging him towards an unbeatable points total.
“It was the result we needed. The whole team deserves it so much, and all this time putting in so much work on bringing this new package and finally seeing the result is very pleasant, and it was also a perfect execution from strategy to call the one-stop, so I’m really happy we made it stick, and it was a great team effort,” said Antonelli.
He delivered a mighty stint on the medium tyres before managing the hard compound all the way to the chequered flag, eking out a margin of 13.078s even after a Virtual Safety Car slowed the field before the final lap, Formula 1 reports.
Leclerc placed second for a consecutive P2 finish as Verstappen withstood multiple niggles with his Red Bull to complete the podium, with Lewis Hamilton adding to Ferrari’s points haul in fourth place.
Lando Norris saw his opportunity of a podium disappear with his ageing tyres, leaving him in P5 ahead of Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar and the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri.
George Russell wind up in eighth place, followed by Liam Lawson and Pierre Gasly in the last of the points-paying positions. Nico Hulkenberg, Arvid Lindblad and Gabriel Bortoleto missed out as they took P11 to P13, with the Brazilian bouncing back from a substantial 80-place grid penalty.
Esteban Ocon took P14 from the Aston Martin pair of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso as Haas failed to score in their home race.
There were three retirements for Alpine’s Franco Colapinto, Haas’ Ollie Bearman and Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas, with the latter pulling to the side of the track to cause the VSC that neutralised some of the last laps.
(IANS)
