Kimi Antonelli claimed his ninth win of the season, but not quite the drivers’ title on Sunday when he drove his Mercedes to a convincing triumph ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in an intriguing and strategic United States Grand Prix.
The precocious 20-year-old prodigy, seeking to be the youngest champion in F1 history and the first Italian since Alberto Ascari for Ferrari in 1953, came home 13.078 seconds clear of the Monegasque with four-time champion Max Verstappen finishing third for Red Bull.
“Good job everyone, that’s the result we needed,” said Antonelli on team radio. “The whole team deserved it so much,” he added later. “It was a good race, but unfortunately, we came up just short of our target which was victory, but it’s positive for us,” said Leclerc. “I think our overall pace was not good enough and the tyres we had available were not the right ones,” said the Dutchman. “But we are still on the podium even if we were a bit lucky at the end.”
“Let’s keep pushing. “They put in so much work bringing this new package and finally to see the result is very pleasant. “We had good pace. Verstappen’s third place means that mathematically he is now out of the running for a fifth championship title.
