Antonelli stands on brink of history in Austin

He came into the weekend insisting he was going to try to apply the "same mindset as I had all year - one race at a time".

But on Saturday he acknowledged that this one was a new kind of weekend.

"It does feel a little bit different," he said. "But the goal stays the same. I just need to keep doing my job. And, actually, I feel like I can enjoy more driving, everything.

"But, of course, we're going to do the race tomorrow. We're going to try and win. And then we'll see what happens. Obviously, I'm in a very good position."

Antonelli is typically accompanied by his father, Marco, at grands prix, but he said this weekend he had brought other people with him as well to help keep him in the right frame of mind.

"I have a great group of people around me," he said. "I have a lot of friends here as well, so we enjoy the evenings together.

"We play cards in the evening, so we're just doing the fun stuff. And that's what helps, to just relax a little bit and just connect with the mind, and then once you go on track you are back full focus."

The maths suggest the most likely scenario is that Antonelli will not win the title on Sunday - it would, as he put it on Thursday, require "something catastrophic to happen to the others".

If this is a bit of an overstatement - Russell and Hamilton would need only to crash together on the first lap, for example - the fundamental truth is real.

He has such a huge advantage - he is 102 points clear of Russell and 111 ahead of Hamilton - that the championship is an inevitability at some point, as Verstappen pointed out when he was asked if he had any advice for his young friend before the race.

"He doesn't need that," the four-time world champion said. "He knows what he's doing. He just needs to try and win the race. If it doesn't happen here, it will happen next weekend (in Mexico City). If it doesn't happen next weekend, it will happen the weekend after (in Sao Paulo).

"It's just been an incredible season. So, you have to also just try and enjoy, of course, this kind of ride over the last months that you've been in. And at one point it's official, and then you can celebrate."

"Incredible" is an over-used word, but an entirely appropriate one in the circumstances.

When it happens, Antonelli will beat the record for youngest champion by more than three years - he will be 20 years and 61 days old on Sunday and Sebastian Vettel, the current record holder, was 23 years and 133 days old when he won his first title in 2010.

Antonelli has taken this season by storm, with eight victories in the 17 races so far, including a run of five in a row after Russell won the first grand prix of the year in Australia.

In doing so, he has dramatically turned the tables after a shaky maiden season in 2025 in which flashes of promise interspersed a generally disappointing year in the context of him being hailed before his debut as a potential generational talent.

This year, he has looked every bit that, but that does not mean a victory on Sunday is a foregone conclusion.

His pole was a surprise because the people most likely to achieve it before qualifying had appeared to be one of the Ferrari drivers or Verstappen.

But Ferrari faded, as they so often do, Charles Leclerc complaining about his tyres losing grip as the sun and temperature dropped, Hamilton saying: "The car felt really good. The lap was solid, so they were just quicker."

Verstappen, meanwhile, went into the final session with "high hopes" after setting a competitive time on used tyres in the second session, only to find his grip had evaporated in the final session.

The race, though, is a different matter. Verstappen's race pace was strong on Friday and he said: "Yes, we have been happier in the long runs. And I hope that it will be the same tomorrow."

Leclerc said he believed he could battle for the win if he could make a good start but Hamilton was not so sure.

He said: "You have to be realistic. We're fourth and fifth. It's very hard to overtake here. Even if you're P2 on the grid, it's hard to beat someone (on pole) over a race distance. I raced here since 2012. It took a lot to get past Vettel back then. But maybe with strategy, we can progress."

There's really only one story on Sunday, though. Antonelli will be champion sooner or later. Which will it be?