The end of the 2023 season is nearing, as it’s time for the penultimate Sprint Race of the season in Austin.
The starting order set by the Sprint Shootout has been slightly modified, as George Russell has received a three places grid penalty for impeding Charles Leclerc during Q1, with the incident brought up to everyone’s attention by the Monegasque driver himself during the session.
The move bumps Daniel Ricciardo, returning from his hand injury, up to a top ten start, for a chance to score his first points for AlphaTauri, for what could be the first instance in the history of the Italian team of scoring points in a Sprint Race.
Everyone bar Alex Albon is on used tyres. The Williams driver is sporting instead a fresh set of mediums, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz the only driver on softs.
At the start Verstappen and Leclerc had a close battle for the lead, which ended in favour of the championship winner, with the Ferrari driver being passed by Hamilton as well, albeit off the track on the exit of T1.
Other drivers with a positive start were Russell, up three places by the first turn, and Sainz, who gained two positions on his softer tyres and is now in fourth behind his teammate, whereas Sergio Perez is struggling to get past latest Sprint Race winner Oscar Piastri.
On Lap 3 the Red Bull driver finally manages to get past the Australian rookie, who is also overtaken by Russell as he struggles with overheating tyres. However, Pierre Gasly mentioned on the radio that in his opinion the Mercedes driver has gotten past Piastri off track at the exit of turn 15, with the British driver investigated for the situation.
It’s a tough moment for the young McLaren driver, who drops off the points scoring top eight as Gasly gets past him as well. At the front, Hamilton closes the gap to Verstappen, who laments drivability issues.
Photo credit: Red Bull Racing
Russell is punished for his earlier off track overtake with a five seconds time penalty, just as Verstappen starts to build a consistent gap over the seven times world champion behind him, gaining a two seconds advantage by lap 8.
Albon gets past Piastri, with the incident noted for move off track, but no further action will be taken. In the meantime, the Australian driver is shown a black and white flag for track limits.
A strong outside move is completed by Kevin Magnussen on Yuki Tsunoda for P16 on Lap 10, moments before Norris manages to get ahead of Sainz for P4. Perez also overtakes the struggling Ferrari driver who went with the C4.
Verstappen’s pace appears to be very strong, lapping consistently in the order of the high 1:39s, with Hamilton in the low 1:40s as reference, now four seconds away from the Dutch driver. The second fastest driver on track at the moment is Norris in fourth, set to start tomorrow from the front row unlike Verstappen.
On Lap 13 Russell attacked Sainz for P6, but ultimately the two times GP winner managed to hold on his track position as he pulled off the switchback on the exit of T1.
Stroll boxed from P14 due to yet another braking issue after the troubles encountered yesterday during pracrice by both Aston Martin drivers. The Canadian is the first and only driver to retire today in Austin.
On the final race lap Russell tried again to overtake Sainz, just as Zhou Guanyu was awarded a five seconds time penalty for going off the track and gaining an advantage against Kevin Magnussen.
Max Verstappen wins in a very dominant way the Texan Sprint race, ahead of an impressive Lewis Hamilton, really in tune with his W14 after the introduction of the new floor, and Charles Leclerc, again on the podium after Spa.
Norris closed up the gap to Leclerc during the final lap, but an untimely lock-up prevented him from trying to score another Sprint Race podium, settling for fourth ahead of a recovering Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz, who managed to hold off Russell in spite of his heavily worn soft tyres.
Due to the Mercedes driver’s penalty, Pierre Gasly is moved up to P7, with Russell taking the final point awarded for the Sprint by only 0.3s over Albon in P9. Piastri rounds up the top ten for the race.
