Round 18, Texas, yet another circuit with straights where the cars can’t hold their maximum speed all the way to the end 🙄
Antonelli gets a very good start and from that moment on we barely see him on screen. He pulls away at the front and it’s pretty clear he’s won the race.
Only something unforeseen could have changed his fate, and no safety car ever comes.
The battle for P2 and P3, on the other hand, is tight. Verstappen, Norris and Leclerc all have a shot at finishing second.
Mercedes did a very good job for Antonelli: a single pit stop, zero drama, everything went perfectly on the strategy side.
With 10 laps to go the fight for P2 begins. Leclerc on hards is gaining seconds per lap and closes in right behind Verstappen, who is less than a second behind Norris ahead of him. Max pulls off a very nice move into P2, but in the end Leclerc passes him a few laps later, his tyres being far less worn.
Antonelli 1, Leclerc 2, Verstappen 3.
Russell finishes P8 and picks up just enough points that Antonelli can’t be crowned champion in Texas, but next week in Mexico there’s a 99.9% chance we’ll have Antonelli as champion.
Hamilton was catching Verstappen towards the end of the race; if he’d started his recovery a few laps earlier, we would have had both Ferrari drivers on the podium.
