Leclerc dominates the US GP as Norris dealt penalty for clash with Verstappen.
Charles Leclerc cruised his way to victory ahead of his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz for an impressive 1-2 finish for the team. In what wasn’t the most exciting race, the Ferrari pace surprised everyone, leaving the Red Bull of Verstappen and the McLaren’s of Norris and Piastri far behind.
It was a race of few highlights. Norris notably again struggled to hold on to his pole position, dropping 3 places off the start to fourth, which is where he would eventually finish after an intense battle with Verstappen late on. An opportunistic Leclerc saw the gap open for him into turn 1 and slid his way from third to first, and never once looked like relinquishing that lead.
The last 12 laps of the race were filled with battles up and down the field, with Perez and Russell trading blows in their battle for P6, as well as Colapinto fending off Magnussen for that final crucial point in P10. However, no battle was bigger than Lando Norris and Max Verstappen. Pushing each other to the limit for the final laps, giving each other no time to relax. Norris had the fresher tyres and clearly the McLaren handled much better on the hard compound than the Red Bull, but Verstappen being wiley in his defence made a move almost impossible. Eventually Norris found his way to the outside of Verstappen into the heavy braking zone of turn 12, with both of them running wide and the McLaren gaining the lasting advantage off track, which was deemed by the stewards to be worthy of a 5 second time penalty, dropping him back down to fourth over the line.
I highlighted Haas in my sprint race report, about how impressive I found their performance and what it could mean for the Grand Prix. Hulkenberg finished an impressive P8, finishing just under 4 seconds behind the Red Bull of Sergio Perez, earning the team a crucial 4 points. Magnussen had great late race pace as he had pitted onto new mediums, but found himself trapped behind Colapinto and eventually just missing out on the points in P11.
Another standout driver from the day was Liam Lawson in his ‘second Grand Prix debut’ for the RB team. Starting in P19 after serving the component change grid penalties, he methodically worked his way through the field, running long on the hard tyre before eventually pitting for a fresh set of mediums. He exited the pits just ahead of his teammate Tsunoda, who was repeatedly questioning his team about the situation. Lawson then continued his fine form finishing P9, with Tsunoda struggling down in 14th.
Elsewhere, Pierre Gasly extremely impressed me. Starting P6 after Russell’s car changes due to his qualifying crash, he almost jumped the McLaren of Piastri off the start and maintained his position extremely well, keeping the cars behind at an arms reach. Unfortunately for him, and the Alpine Team, their strategy of pitting early forced him into traffic, which he couldn’t negotiate and as a result he finished P12.
In my opinion, the biggest disappointment of the weekend has to be Mercedes. They showed some excellent pace, specifically in sprint qualifying, but as the weekend went on, this pace wore away. In the main race qualifying, Lewis Hamilton made a critical error in sector 2, causing him to lose a handful of time which meant he was knocked out in P19. Russell faired much better making it to Q3, but on his final run he had a big snap in turn 19, which ended with him buried in the barrier. To make matters worse, he had to revert back to an older component specs, which under parc ferme rules, forced Russell to start from the pit lane.
Lewis Hamilton’s weekend then went from bad to worse, as he span in the same place are Russell, beaching his car in the gravel and ending his race on lap 3. The other Mercedes had a much better race, by making decisive moves and running long on the hards, giving him fresh rubber at the end to take the fight to Perez, who he calmly passed with a few laps to go to earn himself a well earned P6.
This race didn’t produce the most enthralling spectacle and has helped Verstappen open his championship advantage to 57 points over Norris. The constructors standings however is a much more interesting spectacle.
McLaren still lead the way with 544 points, with Red Bull a further 40 back. But the impressive display from Ferrari has put them 8 points back on 496. With the next two races coming in the next two weekends, momentum is going to be key, and the start Ferrari have had to the triple header is surely going to hold them in good stead to try and claw back the 44 points to McLaren.
Looking towards next weekend in Mexico, McLaren will be aiming to bounce back from what they would consider a disappointing weekend finishing P4 and P5. Ferrari will have the fire in their belly, with Leclerc mathematically still in the drivers championship and the team closing in on the constructors championship, they are certainly a pair to watch. Then there’s the defending 3x world champion Max Verstappen, who has won the last 3 races in Mexico, will feel confident about his chances of extending his championship lead as well.
A lot to gain for a whole host of teams and drivers down in Mexico.