配图为AI生成示意图，非新闻现场图片。

Kimi Antonelli delivered a masterclass in race management at the Circuit of the Americas, converting pole position into victory — his ninth of the season — with a one-stop strategy that left the two-stopping field trailing. His winning time of 1:35:16.650 came 13.078 seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc, with Max Verstappen a further 4.4 seconds back in third.

The strategy told: while most of the field pitted twice, Antonelli ran a long first stint on medium tyres before switching to hards and running to the flag. The time saved on the second stop translated into roughly a 15-second net advantage that neither Leclerc nor Verstappen could claw back.

The race had its share of drama. Verstappen suffered an engine deployment issue at the start and dropped to fourth, recovering to second by the end of lap one before being overtaken by Leclerc late on. George Russell and Oscar Piastri collided wheel-to-wheel, with Russell gaining by running off track and collecting a five-second penalty that dropped him to eighth. Lando Norris finished fifth on worn tyres, while a late stop for Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) triggered a Virtual Safety Car; Bottas, Franco Colapinto and Oliver Bearman all retired.

The championship math is now elementary: Antonelli leads Russell 365-242 with 125 points remaining. Two points in Mexico City next weekend will make him the youngest Formula 1 world champion in history. The coronation nearly came in Austin — but Hamilton finished exactly fourth and Russell exactly eighth, keeping the record on hold.

Editor's Take:The one-stop gamble at COTA was the product of precise modeling, not bravado: Antonelli's team calculated that the circuit's tyre degradation, combined with Mercedes' friendly tyre behaviour and the track-position cushion from pole, created a viable window for a single stop — and the race validated every assumption. Verstappen's Sunday told the story of Red Bull's season: a technical fault at the start erased their qualifying advantage, and the car's race pace proved insufficient to attack without clean air, despite team orders and the Dutchman's own complaint that the car was undriveable at times. All eyes now turn to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, where the thin air at 2,200 metres will stress engines and brakes like nowhere else — but with a 123-point cushion, the smartest play for Mercedes is the dullest one: bring the car home, collect the two points, and crown the youngest champion the sport has ever seen.

Information sources: Formula 1 Official, BBC Sport (October 26, 2026).