After the free practice sessions and qualifying held on Saturday evening Italian time, the most anticipated and important moment of the weekend has arrived for the eighteenth and penultimate round of the 2026 Formula 1 World Championship. At the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, everything is ready for the United States Grand Prix, scheduled for Sunday, 25 October. This weekend is especially important because, for the first time this year, there is a mathematical possibility that the drivers’ title could be decided right here. Championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli has the first of his match points available. For the 20-year-old from Bologna at Mercedes, the race will start from the best position, as he managed to take pole position, something that had not happened since Spa, Belgium. Antonelli will start first for the seventh time in his career. To be crowned champion in Texas, he must win the race and hope that his two main rivals achieve these results: teammate George Russell must finish ninth or worse, and Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton must not finish higher than fifth.
Meanwhile, the two Britons will not start next to Antonelli. Right behind him will be the two Red Bulls, with Max Verstappen on the front row next to Antonelli. The Dutchman, winner in Austin in 2025 and in the last two races of this season, finished qualifying second, almost two tenths of a second behind the Italian, and narrowly ahead of teammate Isack Hadjar by a few milliseconds. The Frenchman, who will start third, also demonstrated Red Bull’s good form at this stage of the season. Despite posting the best times in all three free practice sessions, Ferrari was a little disappointing, not progressing beyond fourth and fifth in Q3. Charles Leclerc will be on the second row, while Hamilton will start third, still keeping a few points’ advantage in the championship over his teammate. Ferrari was two or three tenths of a second off in the fastest lap, as almost always this year, without yet achieving a pole position. Russell also did not perform well, qualifying only sixth, behind the other Mercedes, which makes Antonelli’s first match point seem less impossible after the qualifying results in Texas. Even the reigning McLaren champions have not had a good moment in several races, as they monopolise the fourth row of the grid with Oscar Piastri seventh, ahead of Lando Norris, eighth, who is saying goodbye to the number 1. To complete the first ten in Q3 in Austin, as often happens this year, is the 2026 revelation, Racing Bulls, with Arvid Lindblad’s ninth-place time, although he has five grid penalty positions for changing his engine. Ninth and tenth on the fifth row will be the other Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly. Sunday’s race, with 56 laps, which risks being decisive in deciding the drivers’ title, will start at 21:00 Italian time.
The 2026 Formula 1 “MSC Cruises” United States Grand Prix, scheduled for Sunday, 25 October, at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, will be broadcast live and in full by Sky on Sky Sport F1 (channel 207, also available on the move with SkyGo) and streamed on Now, at 21:00. The race will then be broadcast on a delay (at 22:30) on the digital terrestrial channel TV8, on button 8 of the remote control.
COTA (Circuit of the Americas) is its official name. It is a permanent track built near the city of Austin, in the state of Texas, which has almost 15 years of history with Formula 1. Under the supervision of the famous architect Hermann Tilke, the track was inaugurated in 2012, the year it first hosted F1; since 2013 the Motorcycle World Championship has also raced there. Austin is the United States GP, but American races on the calendar are now three after the arrival of the urban circuits of Miami (2022) and Las Vegas (2023). Over the years, F1 has raced on various American circuits, such as Sebring, Riverside, Watkins Glen, Phoenix, Long Beach, the Las Vegas Caesars Palace, Detroit and Dallas. The last one used by F1 before Austin was Indianapolis, with a good part of the oval, from 2000 to 2007. The Austin track in Texas is very spectacular with many climbs and descents, measures 5.513 metres and has 20 corners, eleven left-handers and nine right-handers, and is run counterclockwise. There are two longest straights, including the pit straight, which will be the only two zones (Straight Mode) where the front and rear flaps can be opened. It has a good mix of corners, with an “S” sequence at medium-high speed in the first sector of the track. The others are almost all slower, such as the two left-hand braking zones of corners 11 and 12 that separate the other long straight, and even tighter ones in the third sector. Famous is the climb before entering Turn 1, a sharp left-hander, where some incidents at the start have already been seen in the past. A track much liked by drivers, where overtaking opportunities are not lacking, both between the slower corners and on the straights for those with more power from their engine. No weather problems are expected, with sun and high temperatures forecast for Sunday as well.
The most successful driver ever at the Austin circuit is Hamilton with five wins. He triumphed at the inaugural 2012 edition at the wheel of McLaren, and then for four years in a row with Mercedes (2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017). Not only that, Hamilton also celebrated two of his seven world titles (2015 and 2019) in Texas. Max Verstappen, meanwhile, has four wins, having dominated nearly all the recent editions with Red Bull (2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025). At this circuit, Ferrari has won only twice so far: in 2018 with Kimi Räikkönen, in what was the last victory of his career, and then in 2024 with Charles Leclerc. The other wins at this circuit were recorded by Sebastian Vettel, in 2013 with Red Bull, and Valtteri Bottas, in 2019 with Mercedes. The race in Texas, since the inaugural 2012 edition, has always been on the calendar, except in 2020 due to Covid-19.
Taken from La Gazzetta dello Sport