Andrea Kimi Antonelli is on the verge of sealing a historic championship triumph following his victory in the United States Grand Prix.
George Russell was Mercedes’ most recent race-winner going into Austin, and this was Antonelli’s first win in over a month. But Russell’s fading championship challenge has collapsed entirely over the last three rounds.The rot set in with his retirement in Malaysia, which not only left him point-less but prompted a grid penalty in Singapore. He compounded matters there by crashing out of the sprint race while leading.
The upshot is, with only an eighth and a ninth place to count from his last three grand prix weekends, Russell has added just six points to his tally in that time. He has been out-scored by eight of his rivals, including Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson, who picked up three times as many points as Russell over the period.
Underlining just how badly the last three rounds have gone for Russell, his haul of six points matches that of Nico Hulkenberg, who lies 14th in the championship standings.
Antonelli’s ninth career victory last weekend means he has now won more grands prix than his team mate. He has drawn level with rivals Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri – plus Piastri’s manager, Mark Webber.
Thanks to Antonelli’s success this year, and Piastri’s failure to win since last year’s Dutch Grand Prix, Italian drivers now have as many grand prix wins as Australians. Antonelli claimed the 52nd grand prix win for an Italian driver, putting the two nations level in seventh place on the all-time list.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Antonelli also scored his seventh pole position, giving him as many as Jacques Laffite. But he missed out on the fastest lap, which Leclerc scored for the second race in a row. It is Leclerc’s 15th fastest lap, matching his Ferrari predecessors Felipe Massa and Clay Regazzoni, plus three-times world champion Jackie Stewart.
Unusually, both Red Bull drivers finished lower than they started. However their recent upswing in form continued and they look increasingly likely to avoid finishing outside the top three in the championship for the first time since 2015. They out-scored McLaren for the fifth round in a row, have drawn level with them on 355 points, and are classified ahead of them in third place by dint of their higher finishing positions in races.
However third place for Max Verstappen means he is no longer a championship contender for the first time in almost six years. The last race Verstappen competed in which he could not take the title was the 2020 season finale at Yas Marina. He dropped out of contention for that year’s championship four rounds earlier at Imola.
Finally, Gabriel Bortoleto set a new record for the largest grid drop penalty ever issued to an F1 driver. He collected a total grid drop of 80 places after Audi replaced multiple parts of his power unit during the weekend. As he qualified 13th and started 21st, he only served 10% of the penalty. The record was previously held by Jenson Button, who had a 70-place grid penalty at the 2015 Mexican Grand Prix.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Over to you
Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the United States Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.