A new champion was crowned at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n
Of course, we\u2019re talking about Alisha Palmowski, who clinched the F1 Academy title on Saturday with a round to spare.<\/p>\n
If you thought we meant Kimi Antonelli, we can’t blame you \u2014 these are F1 takeaways after all \u2014 but his quest for his maiden world championship will continue for at least another week.<\/p>\n
The Mercedes driver did what he needed to do, converting pole position into his ninth win of the season Sunday at the United States Grand Prix. <\/p>\n
Alas, fate wasn\u2019t entirely in his hands. The victory wasn’t enough to secure the title; Antonelli also needed Mercedes teammate George Russell to finish ninth or lower and Ferrari\u2019s Lewis Hamilton to finish fifth or lower.<\/p>\n
Neither of those scenarios played out. Hamilton crossed the line fourth, and Russell eighth, postponing the inevitable and keeping the championship chase alive, mathematically at least, heading into next week’s Mexico City Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
Even though Antonelli needed factors beyond his control to clinch, it wasn’t in his team’s best interests anyway, as it would have meant wishing disaster to befall Russell. <\/p>\n
Sunday was Antonelli’s earliest opportunity to secure the championship, and with five races remaining on the calendar, he’ll have plenty more chances to finish the job.<\/p>\n
Besides, the actual trophy celebration isn’t until the year-ending FIA Awards ceremony, so Antonelli and Mercedes will have to wait regardless.<\/p>\n
Dominant drive for Antonelli<\/p>\n
Antonelli edged Max Verstappen for pole position by nearly two-tenths of a second during Saturday’s qualifying and was never under threat from the Red Bull during the race. <\/p>\n
While Antonelli breezed away from the start, even though he started on the medium-compound tires and those behind were on the quicker softs, Verstappen had to contend with the Ferraris of Hamilton and Charles Leclerc behind him. <\/p>\n
Leclerc overtook Verstappen on the opening lap and held onto P2 for a bit before the Red Bull found its wings (make that wiiings) to jump back ahead. By then, Antonelli had already established a 2.4-second advantage and was off into the distance.<\/p>\n
Verstappen’s pace deteriorated over the course of the race, as he experienced an engine-braking issue and was also losing grip during the final stages. Ferrari came alive: Leclerc swooped ahead and finished second, while Verstappen settled for third.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, an uncontested Antonelli crossed the line with a 13.078-second advantage despite a late virtual safety car cutting into his lead.<\/p>\n
Antonelli on the brink of history<\/p>\n
Antonelli now holds a 123-point advantage over Russell heading into Mexico City. That’s not just a gap but a nearly insurmountable chasm separating the two.<\/p>\n
All Antonelli needs to do is score two points by finishing ninth or higher next week to clinch the championship.<\/p>\n
Nothing is guaranteed, but Antonelli hasn’t finished outside the top five in the past nine races. Only a glitch gremlin, which seems more likely to strike his unlucky teammate Russell, can stop Antonelli now.<\/p>\n
There’s no rush for Antonelli to become the youngest-ever world champion, a record currently held by Sebastian Vettel, who was crowned champion in 2010 at the age of 23 years and 134 days. Whether Antonelli wins it next week or at the season finale in Abu Dhabi (or anytime within the next couple of years, really), the record will be his.<\/p>\n
Andiamo: Antonelli could also become the first Italian F1 world champion since Alberto Ascari in 1953. <\/p>\n
Track limits? What track limits? <\/p>\n
It was believed that track limits would play a larger role in the race, with 207 laps deleted during Friday’s practice sessions due to drivers crossing over the white lines on the track. Think of it like the game Operation, only at 300 kilometres per hour. Commit too many track limit violations, and you’ll receive a penalty.<\/p>\n
Antonelli has had track limit issues this season, but the only time he veered too far was when he attempted to lap one of the Williams cars and was stuck behind the backmarker in its dirty air.<\/p>\n
The only driver to really pay the price here was Antonelli’s teammate Russell, who went off during the opening lap while fending off Oscar Piastri and then banged wheels with the McLaren. Russell was handed a five-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, which dropped him back.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0For the first time in years, Verstappen has been eliminated from championship contention before the season finale. After winning four consecutive titles from 2021-24, Verstappen’s “drive for five” was alive until the season finale last year thanks to a late surge; however, Norris held on to earn his maiden championship. It’s actually impressive that Verstappen was in the mix this year, considering Red Bull is now developing its own power unit in-house in partnership with Ford. Verstappen has finished on the podium in six straight races and entered Texas with back-to-back wins from pole position in Malaysia and Singapore. Not bad for an energy drink company.<\/p>\n
\u2022 We’ve been critical of Aston Martin and newcomer Cadillac in this space earlier this season, but what’s the excuse for the Williams team? Williams has scored only one point over the past 11 races. It’s clearly not the Mercedes engine, as the factory team can attest to. Even fellow Mercedes customer Alpine has shown improvement. Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz continue to languish near the back of the pack, finishing 17th and 18th this time around behind even the Aston Martin cars of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new champion was crowned at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Of course, we\u2019re talking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-946296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}