The drivers were met with a searing heat on track ahead of the 2024 United States Grand Prix, with Lando Norris and Max Verstappen sharing the front row in an all-important start for the destiny of the world championship.
George Russell, who crashed at the end of qualifying, started from the pit lane after his Mercedes team broke parc fermé rules in order to repair his car.
His team-mate Lewis Hamilton had his lowest starting position at the Circuit of the Americas since 2012, with P17 on the grid, reporting before the formation lap that this is “far back”. He started on the hard tyres.
The top 12 cars started on medium tyres.
Charles Leclerc stormed into the lead at the first corner, as Max Verstappen and Lando Norris squabbled between themselves.
Lewis Hamilton had a great start and was up to 12th by the end of the first lap, whilst Carlos Sainz pressurized Max Verstappen into going off track in turn 12, as the pair duelled for second place. Norris had to settle for fourth.
As lap 2 started, Leclerc had a 1.5s cushion back to Verstappen, as his team-mate continued to force his way past the Dutchman, unsuccessfully.
After his great start, Lewis Hamilton’s race went undone as he beached his Mercedes on the exit of turn 19 in lap 2.
The Briton couldn’t get his W15 out of the gravel and the Safety Car made its first appearance since the Canadian GP, back in June, in order to recover the Mercedes.
Further back in the field, Alex Albon and Esteban Ocon came together, with the Williams spinning the Alpine around, but the incident required no further investigation from the stewards.
Hamilton’s incident looked very similar to Russell’s qualifying crash, except the seven-time champion didn’t go all the way to the barriers.
The safety car ended at the end of lap 5, and Charles Leclerc got the launch he needed to maintain the lead, and the top 5 remained as they were before the restart, with Piastri trailing behind his team-mate Norris down in 5th.
Leclerc once again opened up a healthy margin of 1.2 seconds to break DRS after the restart, with Sainz very close behind Verstappen and in DRS range.
Nico Hulkenberg put his disappointing qualifying behind him with a great move on Fernando Alonso to take P10 on lap 7, as he reached down the inside of turn 12.
Verstappen finally responded to Sainz’s threat on lap 8, as he launched down the road and opened up a 1.5s gap to the Spaniard, with Lando Norris a further 1.3s back from them.
Carlos Sainz reported to have “no power” on corner exits in his Ferrari, with his engineer Riccardo Adami reckoning there was indeed an issue, but no action could be taken at that moment. The Spaniard reported it “smells like fuel in the car”, potentially indicating a fuel leak.
Zhou Guanyu spun at the start of lap 10, going from 15th down to last by the first corner.
Ferrari instructed the Spaniard to change some setting on his dash, and it seemed to fix the car for Sainz, as he started to come back at Verstappen on lap 11.
Starting lap 12, the order of the top 10 was: Leclerc, Verstappen, Sainz, Norris, Piastri, Gasly, Magnussen, Tsunoda, Perez and Hulkenberg.
Behind the top 10, Liam Lawson got past Fernando Alonso to take 11th place with a brilliant move down in turn 12, significant in the context of their Saturday fight at COTA.
Max Verstappen’s engineer GianPiero Lambiase reported that they found an “issue” with Verstappen’s car that would be fixed at the first pit stop.
By lap 15, Leclerc had moved into a lead of over six seconds ahead of Verstappen, with Sainz a further 1.7s back.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri couldn’t hang on to the pace of the top 3, dropping back over 3 seconds from the cars ahead, respectively.
George Russell got a five-second penalty for forcing Valtteri Bottas off the track with an overtake attempt down at turn 12. The penalty got Russell asking “what?!” over the radio, whilst his team boss Toto Wolff called it a “total joke”.
Sergio Perez finally made his move on Yuki Tsunoda on lap 17, taking 8th place from the Japanese driver with a standard move down the inside of the hairpin in turn 12.
Kevin Magnussen was the first stopper of the race, pitting from 7th at the end of lap 17 to fit the hard tyres on his Haas.
That triggered a chain reaction in the midfield, as Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda pitted, but the Alpine driver lost out to a very fast out lap from the Haas, dropping a net place due to the undercut from Magnussen.
Oscar Piastri reported that tyres felt good in his McLaren on lap 20, as the graining “cleared a bit”, but the Australian was over 13 seconds off the lead at that point.
Carlos Sainz was first to pit from the front-runners, as he tried an undercut on new hard tyres to overtake Max Verstappen on lap 22 – and crucially rejoined in 5th place, just ahead of Sergio Perez.
Lando Norris started to come back at Max Verstappen on lap 23, staying at around 3.7s back from the Red Bull.
Verstappen didn’t immediately respond to Sainz’s undercut attempt, neither did the two McLarens. The Spaniard started setting fastest sectors and got his move for second place well underway.
Charles Leclerc’s lead was up to 10.6s by the end of lap 24.
Verstappen finally responded on lap 25, pitting for hard tyres, but he came out several seconds behind the Ferrari of Sainz, who just took a net second place from the Dutchman.
Leclerc pitted from the lead at the end of lap 26, putting hard tyres in his Ferrari with a speedy stop of 2.5s, maintaining the virtual lead of the race, despite losing track position to both McLarens staying out.
Impressive performers were two of the rookies for this season, as Lawson and Colapinto held 7th and 8th positions, respectively, at the halfway stage of the race.
At the start of lap 30, it was a McLaren 1-2, as Lando Norris led Oscar Piastri, both yet to pit, fended off Leclerc, Sainz and Verstappen who had all pitted.
Leclerc finally caught up to Piastri on lap 31, and got ahead with no issues, as Piastri opened the door for the Monegasque to get ahead.
That was the cue for Lando Norris to pit, as he finally switched to the hard tyres, with Piastri staying out for another lap. Norris rejoined over six seconds back from Verstappen, but with 6 laps fresher tyres as lap 32 started, and 10 laps fresher than Sainz’s.
Oscar Piastri pitted at the end of lap 32, and rejoined himself six seconds further back from Norris.
Pierre Gasly was handed a 5-second time penalty for making a pass off the track.
At the start of lap 35, the order of the top 10 was: Leclerc, Sainz, Verstappen, Norris, Piastri, Russell, Lawson, Colapinto, Perez and Magnussen.
Lando Norris started taking chunks of time out of Verstappen with his tyre delta, at a rate of almost one second a lap.
Yuki Tsunoda was the latest driver to receive a five-second time penalty for forcing Alex Albon off the track in turn 12.
Liam Lawson finally pitted on lap 37, after starting on hard tyres, and rejoined ahead of his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, with 19 laps fresher tyres.
Sergio Perez continued to struggle, as he finally got ahead of Franco Colapinto on lap 38, after spending 10 laps following the Williams.
Norris continued to reduce the arrears to Verstappen, with the gap between the two title rivals down to 2.7s at the start of lap 39.
Kevin Magnussen was urged to box at the end of lap 39, with a possible issue with the Haas forcing him to box for a second time. He rejoined in 13th place, nearly 8 seconds off the points-paying positions.
Colapinto finally pitted on lap 40, and rejoined just ahead of Magnussen in 12th place, with both on new medium tyres.
George Russell pitted on lap 41, and served his five-second penalty from earlier on, rejoining in 8th place with new medium tyres.
With 15 laps remaining, Charles Leclerc held a 6-second lead from his team-mate Carlos Sainz. Norris got himself within 1.5 seconds of Verstappen.
The McLaren driver got within DRS range on lap 44, and used it to get closer to his title rival, mounting a serious attack for lap 48, that ultimately failed as the Dutchman cleverly defended his third place.
The battle continued for lap after lap after lap, as both Verstappen and Norris pushed each other to the limit in pursuit of a podium and crucial world championship points.
On lap 52, Norris finally made his move, but Verstappen kept his car in at the inside and both went off the track, with Norris getting ahead by virtue of going off track.
Verstappen was told Norris would get a penalty for exceeding track limits, and that turned out true, as the McLaren driver was penalised by 5 seconds, and finished behind Verstappen at the end.
Leclerc held on to win ahead of Sainz for a Ferrari 1-2, with Verstappen securing the podium courtesy of Norris’s penalty, with Norris and Piastri behind.
Completing the top 10 were George Russell, Sergio Perez, Liam Lawson and Franco Colapinto.
Source: Formula 1
