Official F1 Journal Formula 1 Sunday Round Up - United States Grand Prix

20/10/2024

Charles Leclerc won the United States Grand Prix after taking the lead at Turn 1 on the first lap. Carlos Sainz finished second in a dominating race for Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton only managed two laps after getting stuck in the gravel having to retire his car, bringing out the safety car.

Max Verstappen and Lando Norris battled for the last fifteen laps, resulting in Verstappen finishing in third after Lando Norris received a five-second time penalty.

George Russell started in the pit lane and finished in sixth, in front of Sergio Perez, who could only manage seventh place.

Liam Lawson and Franco Colapinto finished in the points, with Franco almost taking the fastest lap of the race until Alpine pitted Esteban Ocon for soft tyres to take it away from them at the end.

Race Facts

Charles Leclerc wins the United States Grand Prix after dominating for the whole race.
Carlos Sainz comes in second for a Ferrari 1-2, with Verstappen in third.
Franco Colapinto and Liam Lawson both finish in the points.
Ferrari move within eight points of Red Bull.
George Russell started from the pit lane after his crash late in Qualifying on Saturday resulted in the team having to work after curfew to repair the car.
Liam Lawson started from P19 after changing his power unit and other parts in the car.
The United States Grand Prix marked Alex Albon's 100th race start.

Lando Norris started on Pole Position for the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.

The top 12 on the grid started on brand-new medium tyres, with Hamilton, Stroll, Lawson, Russell, and Colapinto, all starting on hard tyres.

Lando Norris tried to hold off Verstappen into the first corner but left too much room, and Leclerc breezed past and took the lead of the Grand Prix coming out of the first corner.

Verstappen and Sainz both passed Norris on the first lap, with Hamilton going from P17 into P12 on the first lap after Ocon got spun around by Albon into the first corner, opening up space for cars to get past and leaving Ocon at the back of the grid.

Lawson also gained five places at the race start and moved into P14. Hamilton's fast pace running didn't last long, however, after a mistake on lap three brought out the yellow flag. He ended up in the gravel at Turn 19, and a full safety car was brought out on lap three as Hamilton climbed out of his race car.

On lap five, Leclerc led the Grand Prix, followed by Verstappen, Sainz, Norris, Piastri, Gasly, Magnussen, Tsunoda, Perez, and Alonso, who rounded out the top ten.

The safety car ended on lap five. All the drivers had bunched up, as Leclerc had the lead and stayed in the lead into lap six during the safety car restart.

Stroll had a moment in the dirt on lap six and dropped back to 19th place but overtook Albon for 18th. Then was noted for leaving the track and gaining an advantage over Albon, but resulted in no further investigation.

Leclerc pulled away from Verstappen with a gap of 1.302 seconds by lap seven. Sainz was still within DRS range of Verstappen, but Norris had fallen back, giving the top three space.

Sainz complained of no power out of the corners with a smell of fuel on lap nine and drops back from Verstappen as Norris gains on him. Ferrari gave him different settings to try and he solved the issue.

On lap ten, Zhou took a spin on the track and ended up rejoining the back of the pack complaining about no grip.

Lawson had moved up to 12th after starting at the back, and Russell, who started in the pit lane, had reached 15th. On lap eleven, Lawson overtook Alonso to move up to 11th.

By lap 13, Leclerc had gained a gap of over five seconds from Verstappen, who was second, with Sainz a further 1.8 seconds behind.

On lap 13, Norris complained on the radio about the pace of his car, as he was over three seconds behind Sainz.

Zhou was the first to pit onto medium tyres on lap 14, as Verstappen received a radio message saying there was an issue with the car that they would fix at the pit stop.

Russell was under investigation after forcing Bottas off the track. He received a five-second time penalty for the incident, to which Russell responded, 'What?!' after being told about it over the radio.

Bottas was the second driver to pit on lap 16 onto hard tyres. On lap 17, Perez overtook Tsunoda for P8, but Lawson was only five seconds behind him after starting in the pit lane.

Magnussen pitted for hard tyres on lap 18, starting a chain reaction and rejoined the track in 17th place. Tsunoda and Gasly pitted on lap 19 and rejoined the track in 16th and 17th, but more importantly, behind Magnussen, who took advantage of the undercut.

Out in front, Leclerc built an eight-second gap to Verstappen after Verstappen complained about his tyres on lap 20.

Sainz tried the undercut on Verstappen on lap 22, pits for hard tyres, and rejoins the track in fifth. Leclerc had built a nine-second gap out in front as the pit stops got underway.

Albon was noted for forcing Magnussen off the track, but it was ruled no further investigation.

On lap 26, Norris closed the gap to Verstappen, but Verstappen headed into the pits and rejoined behind Sainz in fifth.

Leclerc pitted from the lead of the Grand Prix on lap 27, changing onto hard tyres, and came back onto the track in front of Sainz in net first or third place on the track. Neither Norris nor Piastri had pitted, as Norris led the Grand Prix on lap 27.

Further behind Gasly, Albon and Stroll battled for 13th place, as Gasly complained about his hard tyres. Gasly was noted, investigated and given a five-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

Hulkenberg and Stroll pitted on lap 28 and returned to the track in 12th and 19th place, respectively. Perez also pitted and rejoined the track in ninth.

Gasly received a black and white flag for track limits on lap 30, and Norris received a warning.

On lap 30, Norris and Piastri had yet to pit and were trying to make a one-stop work, just as Leclerc got within DRS range of Piastri battling for second place, as the Ferrari had gained pace behind. As Leclerc passed Piastri and Norris pitted, Leclerc once again took the lead of the Grand Prix, with Norris rejoining the track in fifth.

Piastri pitted with a slow stop on lap 32, with Russell running sixth, Lawson seventh, and Colapinto eighth. They had yet to pit.

On lap 35, Leclerc was leading with over seven seconds on Sainz, with Verstappen a further four seconds behind Sainz in third and Norris within DRS range of Verstappen in fourth. Piastri was running in fifth, seven seconds behind Norris, followed by Russell, Lawson, Colapinto, Perez and Magnussen rounding out the top ten.

Tsunoda received a five-second penalty for forcing Albon off track. Meanwhile, Perez is still behind Colapinto and unable to pass for the eighth position.

Lawson pitted from seventh on lap 37 onto medium tyres and rejoined the track ahead of Tsunoda in 12th with a five-second penalty.

Perez finally managed to overtake Colapinto on lap 38 after trying for a long time to pass him. Both Perez and Verstappen complained about their hard tyres, with Norris quickly gaining on Verstappen.

Magnussen was called dramatically to the pit lane on lap 39 and returned onto the track on medium tyres in 13th place. Lawson had already overtaken Gasly and was up into tenth place, just as Leclerc drove the fastest lap of the race.

Colapinto pitted on lap 40 and returned to the track in 12th place. Russell pitted and served his five-second time penalty on lap 41, returning onto the track in eighth place on medium tyres.

Tsunoda spun on lap 42, while further ahead, Magnussen and Colapinto had a great battle on track for P11.

With 15 laps to go, Norris had closed up to the back of Verstappen, closing the gap to within 1.5 seconds.

Russell set the fastest lap on lap 44 from eighth as Sainz gained on the back of Leclerc, and Norris got within DRS range of Verstappen for third place. Norris was all over Verstappen's car, staying within DRS range for multiple laps in a row.

After starting in the pit lane, Russell moved up to seventh on lap 46, chasing down Perez for sixth. With ten laps to go, Perez was over 29 seconds behind Piastri.

With ten laps to go, Sainz was within five seconds of Leclerc as Norris and Verstappen continued to battle for third place.

Colapinto took the fastest lap from tenth position on lap 48, with Russell closing up onto the back of Perez, closing the gap to just over two seconds.

With five laps to go, Verstappen and Norris still battled for third, with Norris having the tyre advantage. After almost ten laps, Norris overtook Verstappen for third place on lap 53. With the fight continuing, Verstappen complained about Norris overtaking off track, and Norris was under investigation for overtaking off track and gaining an advantage.

Russell reached the DRS range of Perez on lap 55 and overtook him for sixth place on the final lap.

On lap 55, Ocon took the fastest lap away from Colapinto after pitting for soft tyres.

Norris received his third strike for track limits and received a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage over Verstappen.

Charles Leclerc wins the United States Grand Prix, with Carlos Sainz finishing in second, and Verstappen takes third after Norris received a five-second penalty.

Race Results

1) Charles Leclerc
2) Carlos Sainz +8.562
3) Max Verstappen +19.412
4) Lando Norris +20.354
5) Oscar Piastri +21.921
6) George Russell +56.295
7) Sergio Perez +59.072
8) Nico Hulkenberg +62.957
9) Liam Lawson +70.563
10) Franco Colapinto +71.979
11) Kevin Magnussen +79.782
12) Pierre Gasly +90.558
13) Fernando Alonso +1 Lap
14) Yuki Tsunoda
15) Lance Stroll
16) Alex Albon
17) Valtteri Bottas
18) Esteban Ocon
19) Zhou Guanyu
DNF Lewis Hamilton

Charles Leclerc, who takes his third victory of the season in the Ferrari" “Very happy, it hasn’t been an easy weekend until now I have been struggling with the feeling in the car but I had the confidence in the race and the feeling was better.

“We said in the sprint race we weren’t scared but we felt that the others will improve but today we still had the upper hand so really happy with how it went today, a one-two for the team, we couldn’t have dreamed for better.”

On Turn One at the start of the race: “It was a pretty good Turn One, that is exactly how I wanted to do, we had a good launch and I knew it would be tight. Yesterday I was a bit of a victim being in the wrong place at the wrong time, today I gained from it and that helped a lot in our first stint because we had a lot of mega pace.

“In the second stint it was all about managing behind but we did a great job, the pace of the car this weekend was really good and that’s thanks to the engineers. They’ve been working like crazy to bring the upgrades that we had in Singapore and it seems to be paying off. Everything worked out well and we are really really happy.”

On it being 18 years since Ferrari have had a one-two in the US: “Very happy and now we are still targeting the title, it’s still a long way to go but it’s a good start to this triple header.”

Anny Wooldridge
Writer at F1 Journal

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