New Delhi, Oct 12 (IANS) Italy’s Kimi Antonelli will arrive at the United States Grand Prix in Austin and can walk away becoming the youngest-ever Formula 1 champion in two weeks’ time.
The 20-year-old has already been a record-breaker this season and is set to clinch the record from Sebastian Vettel as the youngest F1 champion, who was 23 years and 134 days old when he won the first of his four titles in 2010.
Antonelli finished P3 at the Singapore GP on Sunday, with Max Verstappen winning his first-ever Marina Bay Street Circuit race. However, his two nearest rivals – George Russell and Lewis Hamilton – did not score many points, with his teammate securing only two points for a P9 finish after starting the race from P19 after taking grid penalties for exceeding power unit components.
Hamilton was P6, as his one-stop strategy failed, which meant he dropped three places from P3 in the last few laps.
Antonelli now leads the championship by 102 points from Russell, and with all the sprint races for the year done, there are only 150 points available from the next six rounds.
The writing is on the wall as Antonelli is set to become only the third Italian driver and the first since 1953 to win an F1 title. And the earliest he can win is in the next race itself.
Currently, six drivers are mathematically in the fight for the title, and six races remain, with Antonelli the favourite for the crown, as he has 340 points. Russell is a distant second with 238 points, ahead of Ferrari’s Hamilton (229), Red Bull’s Verstappen (221), Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc (215) and McLaren’s Lando Norris (201).
For Antonelli to win the F1 title in the next race, he needs to outscore his opponents by 23 points in Austin. For that to happen in the next race, he must win the Grand Prix, which will give him 25 points, and hope that teammate Russell and Hamilton do not score more than two and 10 points, respectively.
If Antonelli is P1, Russell finishes P9 or lower, and Hamilton ends P5 or lower, the Italian will be guaranteed the world title. An Antonelli win will also automatically knock Verstappen, Leclerc and Norris out.
An Antonelli win, Russell’s ninth-placed finish and Hamilton’s P5 would move the Italian 125 points clear of Russell and 126 clear of Hamilton. And even the results countback can’t take the title from him in this case.
If he wins in Austin, Antonelli would also secure nine race wins of the season, and even if Russell wins all the other five races and Antonelli does not score, they will be tied on points at the end of the season.
Antonelli would have nine wins, and Russell, who currently has three race victories, can end up having eight wins, which guarantees the title to Antonelli.
–IANS
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