As he proved for at least the ninth time this season, Kimi Antonelli’s driving skills need precious little honing. But he could use a little extra experience when it comes to manifesting.

We were close to a full moon in the paddock here in Austin at the Circuit of the Americas on Oct 24 night, when we bumped into him in the paddock.

“Look at that moon, Kimi” my friend said to him. “It’s almost a full one and it’s just begging you to manifest what you want.”

He grinned at his race engineer Pete Bonnington, who fulfilled a similar role for years at Mercedes with Lewis Hamilton, this curly haired 20-year-old who was on the cusp of becoming Italy’s first World Champion in 73 years.

“I know exactly what I want to manifest,” he laughed.

That was the win, and for teammate George Russell to finish ninth or lower and Lewis fifth or lower. That would have made him the spiritual successor to the great Alberto Ascari here in Texas, job done.

And for a while, that seemed so close.

Mercedes had opted to start the race on the medium-compound Pirelli tyres. But Red Bull and Ferrari had gone for the faster soft-compound rubber.

After surprising everyone with a superb pole position on Oct 24, which beat Max Verstappen and Red Bull, Antonelli lit out at the start. And as the Dutchman found himself overtaken by Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari and challenged by Hamilton’s, before repassing the Monegasque before the opening lap was done, the Italian pulled out a lead of 2.3sec.

And against all predictions, on those medium tyres he pulled away and had built a three-second lead when Verstappen had to pit for fresh tyres – another set of softs – after only 13 laps. Ferrari quickly followed suit, leaving Antonelli to run until lap 24. That meant that canny Mercedes could get by with one stop, whereas the others were committed to two.

So at one stage we had Antonelli leading, Hamilton fifth and Russell eighth, and if Mercedes’ second driver dropped one more place Antonelli’s planets would have been fully aligned, and his manifesting would have delivered.

In the end it didn’t work out because Hamilton eventually finished fourth, right on Verstappen’s gearbox, and Russell stayed eighth. Which meant that, heading to Mexico next weekend, Antonelli must beat Russell by two points and Hamilton by one.

In the current circumstances, hardly an arduous task one might be forgiven for thinking.

It was, as team boss Toto Wolff said, an exceptional drive from Antonelli. Neither he nor the Mercedes team put a foot wrong all afternoon, and they showed exceptional pace on the unfancied medium tyre allied to some excellent strategical decision making, thus turning around a weekend which had looked rather bleak on the Friday when Ferrari and Red Bull had been very strong.

At that stage either of them looked the most likely winners, Ferrari bringing a small upgrade which helped make the car more driveable, Red Bull building on Verstappen’s recent run of successes which included victories in Bahrain/Malaysia and Singapore. It still seemed that Mercedes didn’t fully understand their own upgrade that was introduced in the former race. But they got their heads down, found the set-up that helped Antonelli to that surprise pole, and chose exactly the right tyres.

Their one-stop strategy enabled Antonelli to make his stop, then retake the lead as Verstappen and Leclerc had to pit again on laps 31 and 39 respectively. Then, on their own fresher rubber – mediums for Verstappen and hards for Leclerc – they ought to have had the chance to catch the Mercedes as their tyres wore down. But Antonelli managed to keep them alive and neither Verstappen, nor Leclerc who overtook him for second place on the 49th lap, had the pace to catch the Mercedes.

As their trackside engineering director observed: “There were encouraging signs with the car pace, although since the update it does feel like the set-up window has become a little harder to hit. Operationally though, the team did a very good job. The strategy decisions weren’t clear-cut, but we held our nerve, made the right call to stick with the one-stop, and the pit stops were solid.

“Most of all, Kimi should be incredibly pleased with his performances. It was a difficult Friday, but what he produced in qualifying, and the race today, was exceptional.”

Indeed, it was. And surely he will successfully manifest that elusive crown in a week’s time.