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In the constructors' championship, Mercedes are in no danger of losing their lead, sitting 134 points clear of second-placed Ferrari with only a few races left of the campaign.

Defending champions McLaren, though, do need to look over their shoulder, as Red Bull have been slowly creeping up on them from fourth place thanks to Max Verstappen's victories.

With both Verstappen and team-mate Isack Hadjar starting in the podium places today, and Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris down in seventh and eighth, could Red Bull, who are only seven points behind, overtake McLaren today?

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent in Austin

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Kimi Antonelli starts from pole position on the first day the Mercedes driver can make history by becoming the youngest world champion.

That’s unlikely to happen today, largely because it would need Lewis Hamilton and George Russell to have especially bad races, but also because Mercedes don’t believe they have the race pace of Verstappen and the Ferraris.

Having said that, the differences between the cars look small here and, if Antonelli can keep the lead, free air does provide a significant advantage.The race is expected to be a one-stop and all tyre combinations are options.

As Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc - in second, third and fourth on the grid - have new softs, it’s a reasonable possibility they will start on them. On the other hand, perhaps a medium start and then the grip of the softs in the final stint might be an attractive option - although that risks wasting the softs if degradation is high.

Leclerc sounded unusually positive about his race chances after qualifying, feeling he had lost out on pole only because the drop in temperature caused by the clouds coming over dropped his tyres out of the temperature window, something to which the Ferrari is especially sensitive. "A good start will be crucial," Leclerc said, "but if we do I think we have the pace to fight with the guys in front.”

The undercut - stopping first to gain time on fresh tyres - is likely to be powerful, but stopping too early can open up vulnerability to being overtaken later in a stint as tyres degrade.

A pit stop takes about 21 seconds in total under green-flag conditions and half that under safety car, the chances of which are relatively low statistically.

Damon Hill
1996 world champion on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra in Austin

Kimi is defensive. He knows he's got to win it and George Russell to finish no higher than ninth. He doesn't want to get knocked off, he doesn't want to get into any problems.

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The chances of the title being wrapped up by the time we reach Mexico City next weekend are slim, but you never know, the stars could be aligning for Kimi Antonelli today.

Thw 20-year-old leads Mercedes team-mate George Russell by 102 points and if leaves Austin with a gap of 125 points, he'll arrive at the second race of this triple-header as a maiden world champion.

Max Verstappen's form over recent races has lifted the Dutchman from sixth place up to fourth in the standings. Victories in the sprint and main grand prix in Singapore has put him within eight points of Lewis Hamilton in third, with second-placed Russell only 17 points ahead before we go racing in Texas.

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent in Austin

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When it happens, Kimi 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 George Russell won the first grand prix of the year in Australia.

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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.

Damon Hill
1996 world champion on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra in Austin

This is really impressive stuff from Kimi Antonelli. Mercedes have really nurtured him, looked after him and got him to this position. I think he's been so prepared for this. He put in a fantastic lap, they've got this car working. I think we're going to have a great race.

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Red Bull's Max Verstappen on what makes the difference when field is as tight as this: "It's just trying to always get everything together, low-speed, high-speed, and that's quite tricky. It's quite windy again today but we'll see. I think it will be quite close between a lot of cars and of course I hope that we're on the good side."

On Kimi Antonelli: "He's doing really well, it's really special to see such a young driver fighting for his first title. We're going to try to give it a good go today and try to make it as difficult as possible."

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World champion Lando Norris was blunt in his assessment after qualifying a disappointing eighth in Austin. "The car was the best it's felt but I just did a c*** job," said Norris. A late track limits strike and a car that was diffcult to control capped off a downbeat Saturday.

Norris added he has "no idea" what might happen at Cota tonight, but climbing the ladder to the podium places will be tough. “The pace is not bad, it's better than what it looks, but it is going to be hard from P8 I guess," he said.

McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri out-qualified Norris and will start one place higher in seventh. The Australian hasn't been on the podium since Japan and Miami at the beginning of the season, and he said the team has "tried a lot of stuff, but nothing's really seemed to be the fix" for their issues.

"We didn't really expect any of the changes we made to make a massive difference, but it's just been incredibly difficult to get lap time out of the car," Piastri added.

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One championship has already been won in Austin this weekend, with British driver Alisha Palmowski clinching the F1 Academy title. Just a month younger than F1 champion-elect Kimi Antonelli, Palmowski finished P2 in Saturday's reverse grid race before Sunday's feature race and the season finale in Las Vegas in November.

Before Saturday's race, Austrian Emma Felbermayr was the only driver with a mathematical chance of overhauling Palmowski but fourth place was not enough to keep her hopes alive.

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Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton on when he starts mentally preparing for the race: "Shortly after this parade basically. You have to go back to your room, you have 20 minutes to calm your nerves, make sure you've covered all the strategy and make sure you set out your plan. You set out your plan earlier in the day but there are a lot of balls that are going to be up in the air today and catching them and being agile and dynamic is going to be key."

On his race hopes: "I'm hoping we can challenge for a podium. That would be awesome but it's going to be tough. It's definitely going to be really tough. We just have to see where we go."

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Ferrari topped all three practice sessions in Austin, so there was a feeling they could be strong contenders for the main spot in qualifying.

Cut to Saturday and Q3, and as the temperatures cooled in the Lone Star State, so did the Scuderia's chances of pole position.

Charles Leclerc, who broke Max Verstappen's winning streak at Cota in 2024, is sharing the second row with Red Bull's Isack Hadjar, and said he can try and make his way forward from fourth and launch an attack for a podium place. Leclerc also added that he and team-mate Lewis Hamilton can work together in Austin "to bring home a good result for the whole team".

On the other side of the garage, Lewis Hamilton, who set the pace in third practice, felt like the car was behaving well on Saturday. But the step up in performance by their rivals has left the Italian scratching their heads.

"Obviously, the power deficit to the Red Bull and to the Mercedes is still significant, and I think that our car clearly is as good as theirs maybe through all the corners, but we lose that down the straight," said Hamilton to Sky Sports.

Pierre Gasly tells Sky Sports, live from the cockpit, it's a bit colder at the Circuit of the Americas today. The Frenchman has been promoted to P10 fr lights out with Arvid Lindblad's grid penalty.

Sunny intervals with a gentle breeze is the race forecast, with tempertures indeed a bit cooler than the previous two days of track action at 28C.

Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson says the wind conditions are OK, but it's those pesky track bumps, the ones Max Verstappen flagged during Thursday's media day, that are the main issue.

BBC Sounds

Harry Benjamin, F1 correspondent Andrew Benson and 1996 world champion will be taking us through this United States Grand Prix - whether we get a new title winner or not.

To tune in, you can either click the listen tab at the top of the page, search for 5 Live via the BBC Sounds app if you're out and about tonight, or ask your smart speaker to "play 5 Live".

More insight and analysis will be available on the F1: Chequered Flag podcast today - just search 'F1' on BBC Sounds.

Jennie Gow
F1 pit-lane reporter

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The run-up to Turn One at the Circuit of the Americas is notorious.

We’ve seen many, many crashes and the man who starts alongside Kimi Antonelli is Max Verstappen - and he doesn’t take any prisoners no matter if you’re battling for a championship or not.

I think the first turn will be explosive and will give us a good indication as to if Antonelli can keep pole position and keep the pace, or is he going to have a battle on his hands.

I think it would take a lot for him to do it today so maybe it rolls over to next weekend in Mexico.

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Three drivers are moving down from their original qualifying position for Sunday's United States Grand Prix for various power-unit changes.

Audi's Gabriel Bortoleto has the biggest drop with a 60-place penalty, so the Brazilian, who made it through to Q2 and tried to give his team-mate Nico Hulkenberg a slipstream boost into Q3 (it didn't work), is starting right at the back in P22.

Alpine driver Franco Colapinto goes from P14 to P21, just ahead of Bortoleto, and Brit rookie Arvid Lindblad will be taking Colapinto's spot after he made it through to the top-10 shootout, but drops five places for taking a new ICE.

Lindblad's Racing Bulls team-mate Liam Lawson also booked a spot in Q3, but the New Zealander sacrificed his running in the final part of qualifying to help out the team.

"I would have loved to have a go at it, but considering Arvid's got a penalty, we were going to be ninth and 10th anyway, it just doesn't really make sense," said Lawson, who starts P9.

"Now we have plenty of tyres for [Sunday]."

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Mercedes' George Russell speaking before the race: "It's amazing always here in Cota with the fans, there's so much excitement already, the stands are full. It's a very exciting race. Obviously we're not in the best starting position but hoping to move forward and try and fight for the podium."

On his qualifying session: "It was just the lap didn't come together when we needed it to. It was as simple as that. The car was feeling good, I was feeling good prior to Q3 and unfortunately we only got P6. I was pretty disappointed but the race is today and we know how quickly it can change."

On his expectations of the race: "It's going to be a great race in front of all of these people but I think it's going to be very close between the top eight cars so I think it can go any way."

Thank you, George. The pit lane is open in Austin...

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Penny for the thoughts of George Russell tonight? His name was spoken about as the next world champion when the new era of Formula 1 began in March. But over the course of the campaign, he's had to watch on - sometimes through no fault of his own - as his younger team-mate took the spotlight away from him.

On the weekend Kimi Antonelli can be crowned title winner, Russell will be starting alongside his former Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton in sixth. The pair will need to keep it clean through the opening stages, as any contact could play right into Antonelli's hands.

Russell said on Saturday the car is in a good window - "the updates have proved really positive" - but his Q3 runs, like other drivers in the top 10 shootout, failed to deliver any threat to pole position.

He added Mercedes' race pace looked "relatively strong" on Friday, and strategy will play a big role today. "There are usually incidents here that change how the grand prix is playing out, so we will be looking for opportunities to move forward," he added.

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Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli: "Massive thanks to all the fans coming. This weekend is probably one of the most special of the year and the support has been incredible and looking forward to the race and hopefully it’s going to be great one."

On what he attributes to his mindset change: "The year of experience and more confidence in myself in what I can do and the team has done an incredible job on bringing such a strong car and the support they’ve given me has been incredible, and then also having a great family around me also helped. So far everything is going well so we’re just going to keep this rolling."

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It was a statement lap by Kimi Antonelli yesterday in Austin. The 20-year-old hadn't been on pole position since the Belgian Grand Prix in July, but he produced the goods when it counted by beating Red Bull's Max Verstappen by 0.179 seconds with his first flying lap in Q3.

Antonelli has said his mindset for the weekend is the same as it's been all year - "one race at a time". His aim for Sunday's grand prix is to be leading out of Turn One and go from there.

For Verstappen, he felt Q3 "was not good". There were no mistakes, he said, just a lack of grip. "But if it's still a P2, I take it," the Dutchman added. Verstappen has been dominant at Cota, winning four of the past five races.

The second Red Bull of Isack Hadjar was third on Saturday, which was a "really great result," said the Frenchman, following his struggles in practice. "Honestly, I felt pole was there for the taking, and to be disappointed not to have it is a good sign of where we're at," said Hadjar.

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Kimi Antonelli's podium finish in Singapore last time out put him 102 points clear of Mercedes team-mate George Russell and 11 points free of Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton in third.

With 150 points left to play for, Antonelli's first objective on Sunday is to win the United States Grand Prix from pole position - he can't seal the title without taking the chequered flag first in Austin.

If he does that, then he needs Russell to finish ninth or lower and Hamilton to finish outside the top four in order to be crowned the youngest ever F1 world champion, beating previous record holder Sebastian Vettel by three years.