Kimi Antonelli hailed the "perfect execution" of his Mercedes team's race strategy for leaving him "very close" to becoming the youngest F1 drivers' champion in the sport's history.
From pole position at the Circuit of the Americas, Antonelli was never troubled en route to taking the United States Grand Prix chequered flag for his ninth win overall of a scintillating campaign.
With five races remaining, Antonelli now leads Mercedes team-mate George Russell by 123 points, and Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton by 124 points, meaning he needs to finish ninth or higher next weekend in Mexico City to take the title, if Russell wins.
Following a consummate performance at COTA to underline his stunning season, Antonelli said: "It was the result we needed, and the whole team deserve it so much.
"All this time putting so much work into bringing this new package and finally seeing the result is very pleasant.
"It was also a perfect execution from strategy to call the one-stop, and I'm really happy that we made it stick, and today was a great team effort."
With one hand on the F1 drivers' trophy now, he added: "Yeah, we're very close. We'll try to finish on a high, and hopefully we can clinch it very soon."
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