United States Grand Prix Round-up

Some good news for the circuit of the Americas hours before the race started as Formula 1 confirmed that the Texas Grand Prix contract has been extended to 2034. The awesome, conventional circuit layout really stresses F1 cars to the maximum and the overall weekend and booming atmosphere is a great watch for fans all over the world.

The lights went out for the Grand Prix and Leclerc had an amazing start on the soft tyres up to P2 and teammate Hamilton had a great start too up into P4. Russell, bad start and dropped 2 places. Leclerc even challenged for the lead into turn 2. Alex Albon had a spin into turn 12 and fell to the back of the pack as he attempted to overtake Bortoleto. Sainz and Tsunoda both gained places on Bearman on lap 2 and 3. Norris attacked Leclerc into turn 12, allowing Verstappen to extend his advantage to the chasing pack by over 2.5 seconds.

Carlos Sainz collected Antonelli in turn 15, attempting to make a dive bomb and the corner not belonging to him due to the rules. Sainz pulled over and retired just before the last corner. Antonelli was sent spinning and hit the barrier slightly but managed to continue. The virtual saftey car came out. Norris significantly dropped back from Leclerc on the restart and potentially into the hands of Hamilton. Stroll made his way past Colapinto, down the inside on the soft tyres, up into P14 at turn 1. Norris and Leclerc battled once again on lap 15, through the last sector, Leclerc defending hard and Norris needing to make the pass to try and get to Verstappen.

Antonelli trying to get anything he can, managed to get past a slow, hard tyre runner of Hadjar into turn 12 on lap 18, up to P16 and also overtaking Ocon too on lap 21 at the same point. Leclerc absolutely shut the door on Norris at turn 14 after another attempt on Leclerc, Norris being pushed of track by the Ferrari. Finally Norris got the job done on Leclerc at turn 12, getting a great exit at turn 11 and getting past him even before the braking zone, up into P2 for the McLaren.

Ferrari were fighting hard, Hamilton losing time to Norris and Leclerc pitted for a set of mediums just after their small squabble. Antonelli made his way past Colapinto on lap 24, up to P14 into turn 12. Lap 26 of 56 and Verstappen led by over 11 seconds to Norris and Hamilton, controlling the pace and seemingly untouchable. Leclerc, on the fresh tyres, got past Hulkenburg very easily into turn 12 as the German went wide at turn 11. Alex Albon had a great scrap with Colapinto, amazingly going round the outside of him at turn 16,17 and 18 as he made the switchback into turn 15 and got the traction over him.

Leclerc up into P7 and past Bearman into turn 12 once again using the fresh tyres to his advantage and also having a battle with Tsunoda through the last sector and round the outside of turn 14, up to P6; Russell a bit further up the road. Russell suffered a lock up into turn 12, losing 4 tenths on his pursue of Piastri, the Aussie then pitting on that lap onto the soft tyres. Norris pitted on lap 33 and had a slightly slow stop again. He came out behind Leclerc, having to do the hard work all over again...

Into the pits came Verstappen a lap later than Norris, onto the soft tyres for the rest of the race, still miles ahead of the pack. Bearman had a huge incident into turn 15 after going for a lung on Tsunoda, down the inside and Yuki shut the door on him causing Bearman to go over the inside grass and spinning as a result. Hulkenburg got ahead of the Haas too. Antonelli made a move on Gasly into turn 1, up to P14 on lap 38 for the Italian, having a good race, albeit being taken out at the start. Not much action from then to lap 48 when Antonelli, again, gets passed Ocon down into turn 12, up to P13 and maybe a later attempt to chase after the Astons and Lawson for the last point.

Lando Norris went for a huge dive up in turn 1 on lap 51, Leclerc making a beautiful switchback on Norris and regaining the place. The battle continued down the back straight and took 2nd place off Leclerc into turn 12, down the inside with the Ferraris rear tyres starting to really drop off at that point.

Hadjar finally got past Gasly down the back straight too after fighting the Alpine for the previous laps, up into P16 after starting last due to his crash in qualifying. The final scrap of the afternoon was from both Alpines for P17, Colapinto sending one down the inside of Gasly into turn 1 even after being told to "hold position". Bortoleto also made his way past Gasly into turn 1 on the penultimate lap of the race, into turn 1 again by making a nice switchback; Verstappen also making his way through the back markers during this battle.

Max Verstappen absolutely dominated the United States Grand Prix for his 7th win in the US, followed by Norris and Leclerc to finish the podium. Apparently Hamilton had a puncture on the last lap and was lucky to get over the line in P4, setting a lap over 10 seconds slower than Piastri who finished P5 - not a good weekend for the championship leader, Norris only 14 points back now. Russell finished a lonely P6 and good points for Tsunoda and Redbull in P7. Hulkenburg, Bearman and Alonso rounded out the top 10, Antonelli missing out on points for Mercedes in the end as the battle for P2 in the constructers is well on between Mercedes, Ferrari and Redbull.

This was the full result of the United States Grand Prix: