Andrea Kimi Antonelli left Jolyon Palmer in awe at the 2026 United States Grand Prix with how he made a “significant” advantage over Max Verstappen during qualifying.

Mercedes driver Antonelli returned to the top of a qualifying timesheet for the first time in eight rounds at the Circuit of the Americas last Saturday. The 20-year-old even converted his seventh pole of 2026 so far into his ninth Grand Prix win after 18/23 rounds on Sunday.

Antonelli beat Verstappen to score pole for the United States GP by 0.179 seconds, as well, after acing his first Q3 run in Austin, Texas. The Italian scored pole with his provisional time of a 1:34.035, while the Dutchman would have to settle for second place with his 1:34.214.

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Jolyon Palmer praises Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s ‘extreme’ kerb usage during qualifying for the United States Grand Prix

Red Bull racer Verstappen was unable to take the fight for the victory to Antonelli, either, as the Mercedes driver produced the perfect launch from pole position to open a margin over the four-time F1 champion before Turn 1. Antonelli immediately being in a lonely race then allowed him to control a one-stop strategy and win by 13.078s over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

The pace that Antonelli produced all weekend at the United States GP seriously impressed Palmer, but most of all in COTA’s first sector during qualifying. Palmer was in awe of how aggressively Antonelli attacked the kerbs in the esses to gain an edge over Verstappen.

Palmer told the F1 website: “Most importantly for Kimi was his underlying pace across the weekend. His pole lap was superb on a day where everybody else was struggling to string laps together.

“I loved the way he was attacking in the first sector, making significant time on Verstappen at the end of the esses by hammering over apex kerbs in his typically extreme manner.

“His middle sector was measured but effective, in the section of the circuit where he and Mercedes had been struggling for much of the weekend. With the wind whipping [around] it was easy for anyone to blow their lap, as he actually did on his second attempt, but his first one was nailed on.”

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Antonelli set a first sector split time of 25.310s on his first Q3 lap, which Verstappen actually bettered with a 25.254s split time on his first flying lap of the pole position shootout (which would also ultimately be his fastest lap in the final part of qualifying at COTA, like Antonelli).

Mercedes star Antonelli then gained time back over Red Bull rival Verstappen in the second sector, having set split times of 37.297s and 37.475s respectively. Antonelli’s last sector split time of a 31.428s was also marginally faster than Verstappen’s 31.485s, resulting in his pole.

So, while Palmer was impressed by Antonelli’s speed through COTA’s first sector and how he aggressively attacked the kerbs during qualifying last Saturday, it was not actually where he made the difference against Verstappen in their fight for pole at the 2026 United States GP.