Andrea Kimi Antonelli joked that avoiding breaching track limits was his “biggest achievement” as he sealed pole position in Formula 1 qualifying at the United States Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to a surprise pole at COTA ahead of a race in which he could clinch his maiden F1 world title.
20-year-old Antonelli will be crowned F1’s youngest world champion if he wins on Sunday, with Lewis Hamilton finishing fifth or lower and George Russell ninth or lower.
After taking his seventh and perhaps most unexpected pole of 2026, Antonelli joked that he was relieved to not be pinged for track limits.
Antonelli beat Verstappen to pole at COTA
Track limits infringements have been something of an Achilles’ heel for Antonelli in an otherwise phenomenal campaign.
“It was surprising, but also one of the biggest achievements for me today is that I didn't do track limits,” Antonelli laughed.
“That also made our life a little bit easier, that I didn't put myself in a difficult situation, and we were able to just progress throughout the session and to build from there.
"But definitely it was unexpected. We knew it would be close, but it was a good surprise.”
Antonelli was delighted by the progress Mercedes has made with its troublesome Malaysia upgrade, which has been fitted to both W17s in Austin.
Antonelli celebrates his pole
“It was a good qualifying where we progressed throughout the session, but, yeah, it was not an easy session,” the Italian explained.
“The wind was picking up, was being quite gusty in Q3. It was a little bit tricky because the wind was a bit unpredictable, picked up as well, especially that last lap, it felt a bit worse.
"But overall, yeah, I'm happy. I’m happy because we've been working really hard on this package and we're still trying to understand it fully, but since Singapore we've taken a big step further.
“Now we've just got to keep keep working on it, keep understanding. But it's a good result for the team because they've done a tremendous job on bringing this package, and finally we're seeing the results.”
Asked about where his Mercedes felt most alive on his pole lap, Antonelli replied: “Medium-speed corner. High speed, medium speed, it felt in a good place.
“We still struggle a little bit in low speed, but overall, the car has been very good in sector one and sector two, especially through 8 and 9.
“That's where we feel the most gain from the package, it’s still the low speed that we're trying to to understand.”
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