Andrea Kimi Antonelli won the 2026 United States Grand Prix on Sunday at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, according to El Financiero. The Mercedes driver took the eighteenth round of the Formula 1 season but did not secure the drivers' championship, which will now be decided at the Mexican Grand Prix.
El Financiero reports that Antonelli needed two additional results to claim the title in Austin. He required his teammate George Russell to finish ninth or lower, but Russell came home eighth. He also needed Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari to finish no higher than fifth, and the Ferrari driver ended the race fourth.
Why it matters
The outcome leaves the championship mathematically open with the series heading to Mexico City. Antonelli's win in Austin was not enough on its own, and the two conditions El Financiero identified as necessary for a title celebration both went against him. The gap between winning a race and winning a championship was defined by results elsewhere on the timing screens.
For Mercedes, the race delivered a victory but also a reminder that the title fight involves both cars and rival teams. Russell's eighth-place finish was one position too high for Antonelli's purposes, while Hamilton's fourth place kept the Ferrari driver inside the top five that Antonelli needed him to miss.
Leclerc and Verstappen complete the podium
Charles Leclerc of Ferrari finished second in Austin, with Max Verstappen of Red Bull third, per El Financiero. The report describes the two as the drivers who produced the day's main action, well behind Antonelli's Mercedes.
The podium order places one Ferrari and one Red Bull between Antonelli and the rest of the field, a detail that matters in a title race decided by fine margins. Leclerc's second place and Verstappen's third came on a day when Hamilton, Leclerc's teammate, finished fourth — the result that denied Antonelli one of his two required conditions.
Mixed day for Cadillac and a retirement for Colapinto
Sergio "Checo" Pérez finished nineteenth, according to El Financiero, completing another race for Cadillac. His teammate Valtteri Bottas retired from the event. Franco Colapinto of Alpine also had to withdraw his car.
For Pérez, the home race in Austin sits close to his native Mexico, and the nineteenth-place finish continues his run of completed races with Cadillac. Bottas's retirement and Colapinto's withdrawal added two more non-finishes to the day's tally.
The Mexican Grand Prix is next on the calendar, and it is there that the 2026 drivers' championship will be settled.
