United States F1 GP RECAP: Piastri gains race day advantage after gamble pays off

That wraps up nine.com.au's LIVE coverage of qualifying for the US Grand Prix.

We'll be back tomorrow morning for the race, which gets underway at 7am.

Kimi Antonelli needs to win the United States Grand Prix and for his rivals to suffer misfortune if he’s to become F1’s youngest world champion on Monday (AEDT).

But he’s given himself the best chance to tick the first box after clinching pole virtually from the clouds on Sunday morning.

Antonelli and his Mercedes team had barely looked threatening during practice, and even the opening two parts of qualifying, before the 20-year-old shot to the top of the timesheets with the opening runs in Q3.

Gusty winds meant nobody except the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton was able to improve on their times in the final runs, gifting Antonelli a shock pole from the Red Bull duo of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar.

READ THE FULL QUALIFYING WRAP HERE

Oscar Piastri will start tomorrow’s US Grand Prix from seventh, and he’ll be hoping to make the most of an ace he’s managed to slide up his sleeve.

Piastri was able to secure progression from Q1 to Q2 by using a set of medium-compound tyres when most others were on the softs.

If Piastri makes a late pitstop – either by building a late stop into the strategy or if there’s a late safety car – he’ll be able to bolt on the fresh set and be able to finish the race on a tear.

Unfortunately for him, the Mercedes pair of Kimi Antonelli and George Russell were able to pull the same trick. The Red Bull pair also managed to save an extra set of softs by using the same set through the opening two parts of qualifying.

It means of the cars in front of him, only the Ferrari pair of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc don’t have a fresh set of softs.

The McLaren’s haven’t been particularly competitive this weekend – at least in relation to the Ferraris, Red Bulls, and Mercedes – so I’m sure if Oscar was offered a guaranteed P5 finish tomorrow, he’ll probably take it.

The race starts at 7am AEDT tomorrow.

Each of the top-three drivers mentioned a strong tailwind down the long back straight, which means there is less downforce when they jump on the brakes for the tight left-hander.

The circuit is also bumpy there, which unsettles the car even more.

P3: Isack Hadjar (Red Bull): “I’m happy with P3 because it’s been incredibly hard for me since the start of the weekend. I couldn’t find the right balance, I’ve struggled so much. This morning I couldn’t even set a lap on the soft because the car was that hard to drive. So I’m just thankful for the hard work of the team throughout the weekend. I’ve been a bit tough with them, so I want to apologise (laughs). I’m happy to be third, even though I think we had a shot at pole. I had a massive tailwind in turn 13 and 15 – I lost so much time on my lap. So I’m a bit gutted, but I’m happy to have fought back like that.”

P2: Max Verstappen (Red Bull): “Q3 was not good. I mean Q1, Q2 was nice, but then for whatever reason, on both of the (tyre) sets, I just didn’t have a good balance. There were no mistakes, but just no grip, and I started to slide a lot. Then the final lap, you can see that it’s not really happening with the tailwind in places. So you try to push a bit more, you hit a bump wrong, and the car is like a kangaroo, so you have a massive slide, (and) the lap is over. Just not very happy with Q3, to be honest, just not what I wanted, not what I expected. But if it’s still a P2, I’ll take it.”

P1: Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes): ”We’ve got pole, so we’ll try to win tomorrow! But, Max has been very quick, also Isack did an incredible job in qualifying. So it’s not going to be easy, but we’ll try to get a good start, and then hopefully we’ll lead into turn one, and then we’ll try to set the pace, even though it’s going to be very tight. Very happy with the qualifying today. Q3 was very tough with the wind – very gusty, unpredictable, but happy we’ve stuck it on pole.”

1. Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 1:34.035
2. Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:34.214 (+0.179s)
3. Isack Hadjar | Red Bull | 1:34.250 (+0.215s)
4. Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:34.267 (+0.232s)
5. Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 1:34.311 (+0.276s)
6. George Russell | Mercedes | 1:34.476 (+0.441s)
7. Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 1:34.803 (+0.768s)
8. Lando Norris | McLaren | 1:35.049 (+1.014s)
9. Arvid Lindblad | Racing Bulls | 1:36.049 (+2.014s)
10. Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | No time

Kimi Antonelli has taken the first step towards claiming the world championship by taking pole for the US Grand Prix!

Where did that lap come from?! Mercedes hasn’t looked threatening all weekend and then in the final qualifying session, BANG! He arrives!

Only Lewis Hamilton was able to improve on his earlier time -- everyone else went slower. A couple of drivers have had lap times deleted for going off the track on their final laps.

Antonelli set the quickest time to the middle sector but bailed out of the lap and did not improve after a massive slide.

Oscar Piastri is seventh.

The Ferraris of Leclerc and Hamilton were only fourth and fifth.

Has Kimi Antonelli just announced himself as contender for pole?

He's quickest after the opening runs over the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Hadjar. Ferrari are only fourth and sixth. McLaren seventh and eighth, Piastri ahead of Norris.

The Racing Bulls pair of Kiwi Liam Lawson and Brit Arvid Lindblad both made it through to Q3, but cameras caught Lawson getting out of the car at the end of the last session.

He's speaking to media already, and said it was planned for only one of the two to run.

It’s probably fair enough – they aren’t going to do better than P9 and P10 in this session, given it’s the two Mercedes, Ferraris, Red Bulls and McLarens in the session with them, so why waste a set of tyres?

Piastri did bolt on a new set of softs and did progress into Q3 in sixth place.

Charles Leclerc set the quickest time. Ferrari has arrived!

The Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar are fourth and eighth, but both have used the same set of tyres in Q1 and Q2, so have now given themselves the same advantage as Oscar Piastri, but achieved in a different way.

Eliminated is Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Nico Hulkenberg (Audi), Oliver Bearman (Haas), Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi), Franco Colapinto (Alpine) and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin).

The Audi of Bortoleto set the 14th-quickest time, but will be starting the race from the rear of the grid anyway -- he's got a whopping 60-place grid penalty for taking on extra engine components.

Teams are only allowed to use a limited number of components that make up the power unit -- the term given for the combined combustion engine and electrical motors -- and anything beyond that will end in a grid drop.

Bortoleto's penalty would theoretically have him starting from 74th on the grid, but he will be allowed to start in 22nd. Maybe they should make him start around the other side of the final corner…

Everyone behind him will move up one place.

After the opening runs of Q2, Verstappen has gone quickest from Norris, Antonelli, and Russell.

Piastri is down in 10th nearly a second slower. Not a great lap. He’ll need to get a wiggle on to progress, or the advantage he gave himself by setting his Q1 time on mediums will be wasted.

There were a mixed of used and new soft tyres used in the opening runs, so it's a bit hard to tell exactly who is fast and who's lagging a bit.

The Ferrari pair were both on used softs, so they'll no doubt go quicker on a new set.

A reminder, drivers need to be in the top-10 to progress to Q3.

Q2 has started and cars have returned to the track.

A reminder young Mercedes gun Kimi Antonelli can wrap up the drivers' championship this weekend, but will need some help.

He needs to leave this weekend with a 125-point cushion at the top of the standings.

So for him to win the title tomorrow, Antonelli MUST win the race, and hope teammate George Russell and Ferrari rival Lewis Hamilton hit trouble.

Russell must not finish higher than 8th, although that would leave the gap at exactly 125, but the countback in the event of a tie at the end of the year is on race wins, so even if Antonelli didn't finish another race this year and Russell won all five, Antonelli would still be champion with nine wins to eight.

Hamilton must not finish higher than fifth.

Verstappen, Leclerc and Lando Norris are also mathematically in title contention, and would all be knocked out if Antonelli wins.

F1 Drivers’ standings top-10

1. Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 340
2. George Russell | Mercedes | 238 (-102)
3. Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 229 (-111)
4. Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 221 (-119)
5. Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 215 (-125)
6. Lando Norris | McLaren | 201 (-139)
7. Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 138 (-202)
8. Isack Hadjar | Red Bull | 97 (-243)
9. Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | 75 (-265)
10. Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 41 (-299)