Antonelli is not up for rodeos and takes the pole position for the US GP

On October 21, 2007, Kimi Raikkonen took advantage of the civil war that broke out at McLaren between Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, to become world champion and elevate Ferrari just three years after the last title, achieved by Michael Schumacher. When the Iceman crossed the finish line at Interlagos as the winner, and Chris Dyer, his track engineer, gave him a message on the radio that has become iconic —“According to my calculations, you are world champion by one point,” the Briton told him—, another Kimi was taking his first steps at the Antonelli home, in Bologna, a university city located in Emilia Romagna, in the north of Italy, in an area called Motor Valley, industry that proliferates in the area and concentrates brands such as Ferrari, Lamborghini or Pagani. Marco, the child's father, raced cars and soon gave his son the speed virus. Barely 19 years later, the kid has within his reach this Sunday (9:00 p.m., Dazn), in Austin, the first opportunity to break one of the most striking records that exist in any sporting discipline, also in Formula 1: that of becoming the youngest champion ever.

Unless a catastrophe breaks out, the Italian already has that record practically on his service record. The more than 100 point advantage he has in his favor in the general table, with respect to George Russell, his neighbor in the Mercedes workshop, offers him a gigantic margin to finish the work he cemented in the first half of the course. Regardless of whether you celebrate the alirón in Texas; next week, in Mexico, or within 15 days, in Brazil, the Bolognese will do it three years before Sebastian Vettel, who in 2009 gave Red Bull its first win, when the German had already blown out the 23 candles on the cake.

Antonelli will not have it easy this Sunday to go out on his shoulders, five stops before the World Cup closes, only one below the absolute record of six, which Schumacher has held since 2002. Basically, due to the casuistry that must occur, because the boy showed in the land of cowboys that he is not one for detours: with a scandalous lap he signed his seventh pole position of the season, the first since the one he took in Belgium, in July, at an unbeatable time for it.

When the traffic lights go out at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) there will be up to five riders with mathematical options to prevent Antonelli from leaving the United States with the jackpot, although only Russell (will start sixth) and Lewis Hamilton (fifth), third, can be considered candidates if we take the numbers into account. More than anything, because not even victory would give him the title automatically, but he would have to wait for his teammate to cross the finish line beyond eighth place. If Russell finishes in the top eight, the outcome of the championship will immediately move to next weekend, at the Hermanos Rodríguez circuit in Mexico City. The 111 points that separate the leader from Hamilton demand even more from the Ferrari, which is obliged to finish in the top four to postpone the confetti of the star manufacturer. Fernando Alonso will start 13th and Carlos Sainz, 18th.