Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to pole in Q3

Credit : LAT Images/Sam Bloxham

Kimi Antonelli’s chances of becoming Formula One’s youngest ever world champion in Texas this weekend improved massively after he claimed a surprise pole position for Sunday’s United States Grand Prix. Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton could only qualify fifth and Antonelli’s Mercedes team-mate George Russell was sixth.

Antonelli, who holds a 102-point lead over Russell heading into the race, and a 111-point lead over Hamilton, knows he has to win on Sunday to stand any chance of tying up the championship with five rounds of the season still remaining. The 20-year-old also needs Russell to finish ninth or lower and Hamilton to finish fifth or lower.

But all of those things are still possible after a tricky, windy qualifying session at the Circuit of the Americas that threw up a few surprises.

Ferrari, who had topped every practice session in the build-up to qualifying, were the big disappointment.…