It was another podium finish for the team from Milton Keynes

Third place for Max Verstappen in Sunday’s US Grand Prix was not enough to keep him in the F1 title race.

Mercedes youngster Kimi Antonelli needs to score just two points at this weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix to become the youngest ever world champion after his dominant victory at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, with only Lewis Hamilton and George Russell able to stop the Italian from claiming the crown.

With five races still remaining, it is the earliest Verstappen has been ruled out of a title race since 2017.

For spells in Texas, the Red Bull Racing man had been in contention for victory but the pace of Antonelli ultimately won out. The first of the front runners to stop, Verstappen jumped the one-stopping Mercedes when he eventually came in.

But aging tyres towards the end saw Verstappen drop behind Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, and his podium spot was saved by a late virtual safety car to deny Lewis Hamilton a chance to pass.

“It wasn’t the strongest race for me,” Verstappen said afterwards. “There were a lot of things that didn’t work out and we seemed to experience different problems.

“We struggled with engine consistency throughout the race, which we’ll need to work on, but it’s still a podium, so if you look at the beginning of the year and where we are now, we’ll take that.

“We’ve had quite a few podiums in a row, but at the same time, our target is always to be first, and we want to win more. The target for the rest of the year will be to keep that position. It’ll be tough, but we’ll keep working.”

Team-mate Isack Hadjar, despite starting third, did not have the pace of the front four but mixed it well with the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, to come home in sixth place.

He said: “It’s been a frustrating end to the weekend. We didn’t have a great start and lost two positions to both of the Ferraris, but from then on we settled into a rhythm and found really strong pace.

“I felt good on the soft tyre and I was lapping similar to the leaders, so the performance was there. I’ve been working so hard on the race pace, so it was good to see it in action.

“As the race went on, the tyre degradation was more manageable, so we moved onto a one-stop strategy. Unfortunately, we faced a system issue in the pit lane which really compromised us for the rest of the race. We did a good job to keep P6 and bring a few points to the team from what was an up-and-down weekend.”

The team from Tilbrook moved up to third in the constructor’s championship as a result of their haul.