AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — In the first moments after Kimi Antonelli’s latest victory, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff called it “another small step” toward the Formula 1 season championship.
It’s much bigger than that as Antonelli marches toward F1 history.
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Antonelli’s dominant win Sunday at the United States Grand Pri x put the 20-year-old Italian on the brink of becoming the youngest champion in series history at the next race in Mexico City
Antonelli's ninth victory of the season was a pole-to-flag drive that came within a razor-thin margin of closing out the championship. Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton finished fourth and Antonelli’s Mercedes teammate, George Russell, finished eighth to extend the championship at least one more week.
Anything lower by them Sunday and Antonelli would already be champion.
“The car felt perfect today,” Antonelli said. “Trying to have fun, hopefully fight for another win (in Mexico City). It would be best to finish well.”
He made quick work of the Sunday with a blistering start that blew Red Bull’s Verstappen off the line as he eased into the first corner. The uphill left-turn switchback is one of the most notorious collision spots of the season and it was no trouble on this day.
Verstappen has struggled with his starts several times this season, and Antonelli’s blast into the first corner from pole position never gave him a chance to win the inside line into the corner. Instead, the four-time champion quickly found himself in a fight with the two Ferrari cars while Antonelli drove off into the distance and seized control of the race.
Antonelli kept extending his lead while Mercedes watched to see where Russell and Hamilton would finish.
Ferrrari’s Charles Leclerc finished second. Verstappen was third after winning the previous two races.
“Not a good race for us, Verstappen said. ”My start was normal, it’s consistently (bad).”
After Antonelli took the checkered flag, team principal Toto Wolff spoke to him over the radio during his victory lap.
“Another small step,” Wolff told him. “Another small step.”
The biggest one could come next week in front of one of the biggest, most boisterous crowds of the season in the high elevation of the Mexico City Grand Prix at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Close it out and Antonelli will be the first Italian to win the drivers championship since Alberto Ascari in 1953.
“It was a result we needed, the whole team deserve it so much,” Antonelli said.
Under Texas law, where the legal drinking age is 21, Antonelli is too young to quaff the victory champagne on the podium. In the cool down room after the race, Leclerc and Verstappen hinted at what could come next week south of the U.S. border.
“So probably Mexico, then?” Leclerc asked. Antonelli nodded slightly.
“Some tequila,” Verstappen said with a fist pump.
“For Brazil you won’t arrive in great shape,” Leclerc joked about the following race.
“He misses the Sao Paulo Grand Prix,” Verstappen shot back.
Almost every scenario puts the title within his grasp. He leads Russell by 123 points and Hamilton by 124. There are only five races and 125 points left to win.
Any Antonelli finish head of those two wins the title. A Russell victory and ninth-place finish by Antonelli wins it. A Hamilton victory and 10th-place finish by Antonelli wins it.
And if neither Russell nor Hamilton win, Antonelli clinches the title no matter how he does.
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