Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli earns surprise pole for the US Grand Prix as he chases the F1 title

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Kimi Antonelli earned a surprise pole position Saturday for the United States Grand Prix, giving the championship leader a chance to close out the season title with a victory if his closest rivals falter.

Mercedes' 20-year-old Italian driver edged out Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who came to the Circuit of the Americas having won the previous two races from pole position.

Red Bull's Isack Hadjar will start third. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who looked like a pole contender most of Friday and Saturday, will start fourth.

Antonelli will be chasing his ninth victory of the season. And he has a mathematical chance of winning the championship.

First he must win. If he does that, and Mercedes teammate George Russell finishes ninth or lower, and Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton finishes outside the top four, Antonelli will clinch the championship. He would be the youngest champion in F1 history.

Hamilton will start fourth, with Russell sixth.

Antonelli leads Russell by 102 points and Hamilton by 111 with six races left in the season. He built the large lead through the first half of a remarkably consistent season that included five wins in the first six races.

He hadn't started on pole since Belgium, a span of seven races.

Of the 13 previous races at COTA since 2012, 11 winners have started on the front row. The exceptions were Leclerc from fourth in 2024 and Verstappen from sixth in his dominant 2023.