Kimi Antonelli clinched pole position for the United States Grand Prix in Formula 1, while George Russell finished the session in sixth place. The Italian secured the top spot on his first attempt in Q3, beating Max Verstappen by 0.179 seconds in a session marked by an even balance among the drivers.
The young racer highlighted how tough it was to find the perfect lap time and praised the team’s work to improve the car’s performance. “I’m very happy to take pole position, because the session wasn’t easy. We evolved throughout the qualifying, as we did during the whole weekend, but it wasn’t easy to find the ideal lap time,” he said.
“It’s a great result for the team, because they’ve done tremendous work with this package and now we’re seeing the results. Our closest rivals looked very fast, but we’ll try to make a good start and then see how things unfold,” he said.
Russell, for his part, assessed that the qualifying had been positive up to Q3, when he could not repeat the pace shown in the earlier sessions. The British driver attributed the sixth place to two laps that fell short of expectations.
“We made some good improvements to the car this weekend and managed to put it into a good operating window. The updates were very positive, and my qualifying was going well until we reached Q3. In the end, it was just two bad laps on my part, and that’s why we finished sixth,” he explained.
The Briton also stressed that Antonelli’s pole demonstrated the car’s potential and he hoped to seize opportunities during the 56 laps, underscoring the importance of strategy and the possibility of incidents reshaping the race. “Tomorrow we’ll have a long race, in which strategy will play a fundamental role. It’s common for incidents here that alter the GP’s course; that’s why we’ll be alert for any chance to move forward. Our pace on Friday was quite solid, which is an encouraging sign. We’ll push hard to collect solid points,” he concluded.
