Kimi Antonelli after his victory in the US Grand Prix: “I’m relieved – title in Mexico”

It was a world-class performance: Kimi Antonelli won the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), ahead of Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari and Max Verstappen in the Red Bull Racing car. This is the Mercedes driver’s ninth Grand Prix victory (the same number as Mark Webber, Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri), his third in North America following Miami and Montreal, and his first at the Texan circuit, as well as his 18th podium finish in the premier class (the same number as Mike Hawthorn and Heinz-Harald Frentzen).

At the same time, Antonelli’s Mercedes team secured their 143rd Grand Prix victory, their twelfth of the 2026 Grand Prix season and their sixth win at the US Grand Prix (their first since Valtteri Bottas in 2019).

After his almost flawless drive (just one instance of overbraking, caused by a backmarker), Kimi Antonelli said: “We needed this result, having failed to win since Spain. The whole team worked their fingers to the bone to get our update onto the track, and then it took a while before we could harness the potential of the new parts. It’s finally worked out. I’m very relieved.”

“It’s good to see the whole team’s hard work being rewarded like this. I think we also got everything right in terms of race strategy today with this one-stop strategy.”

Kimi Antonelli already has one hand on the World Championship trophy and the other close by; the Bolognese driver wants to seal the deal at the upcoming Mexican Grand Prix: “I want to tick this off as quickly as possible.”

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A funny detail: had Kimi clinched the title here, it would probably have been just mineral water and orange juice – at 20, Antonelli is too young to drink alcohol in the US.