Charles Leclerc started the race from Pole after Verstappen’s late time deletion in Qualifying saw him demoted to P6. Lights out at COTA saw McLaren’s Lando Norris get a batter start over Leclerc while Hamilton tagged Sainz from behind but both remained intact. Meanwhile Oscar Piastri and Esteban Ocon also tangled, with the latter’s Alpine getting some sidepod damage.
How Lenovo made the world’s first Kiss Activated F1 trophy | TOI Auto
Lap 7 saw Ocon coming into the garage and retiring out of the race. A few laps later, Piastri’s pace came down as well, and McLaren ended up retiring one of their two cars too. Verstappen’s pace had been evident all weekend long, and the Dutch driver was quickly moving up ranks.
Here are all the point scorers at the 2023 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix –
1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
2. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
3. Lando Norris (McLaren)
4. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
5. Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
6. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
7. George Russell (Mercedes)
8. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
9. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
10. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
Verstappen managed to overtake Norris on Lap 28, thanks to his medium tyres while the latter was on hards. However, Norris was on a one-stop strategy while the current World Champion was on a two-stop run. Verstappen made a pit stop a few laps later, joining the pack on fourth behind Leclerc and ahead of Norris. It was about time the Dutch driver regained the lead of the race after overtaking Leclerc when Hamilton pitted from the lead.
“If you want my honest opinion about the sprint weekends… I don’t really get excited by it. Now we’ve done this race, everyone more or less knows what’s going to happen tomorrow. If I were a fan, I’d be disappointed. It takes away that magic of waking up on a Sunday morning and you’re not sure which car is going to be the quickest,” said 2023 World Champion Max Verstappen on the sprint weekend format, ahead of the race.
Team Radio on Lap 47 revealed that Verstappen is certainly not ‘cruising’ to victory each and every race. The Dutch driver had constantly complained about his struggle with brakes. With less than 10 laps to go, Verstappen was completely dialed in, only increasing his lead from Norris on second. The young McLaren driver, on the other hand, was facing heat from his compatriot Hamilton.
Hamilton’s fresher medium tyres made it easy for the seven-time World Champion to move past Norris onto P2. However, the gap to Verstappen was still over five seconds with just seven laps to go! A few places behind Leclerc was struggling because of poor strategies which saw him opt for a one-stop strategy. After having started the race on pole, the Monegasque was now down to P6 after Sergio Perez comfortably passed him.
The gap between Hamilton and Verstappen for P1 had reduced to under two seconds on the final lap. However, it was Verstappen who managed to stay ahead despite struggling with brakes, crossing the chequered flag for his 50th Grand Prix win in Formula 1, and his 15th victory this season itself! Norris was voted the Driver of the Day by fans, while Tsunoda took home an additional point for setting the fastest lap. Fernando Alonso was the third driver of the day who had to retire his car.
[Post-race update]
After the race, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were both disqualified from the United States Grand Prix for technical breach. Following the race in Austin, their cars were inspected and irregularities were spotted by the FIA Technical team after a plank wear inspection was carried out. The Stewards noted that “the onus is on the competitor to ensure that the car is in compliance with the regulations at all times during an event. In this particular case, the rear skid in the area defined in the Technical Delegate’s report was outside of the thresholds outlined in Article 3.5.9 e) of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations, which includes a tolerance for wear.”
The disqualification moves Norris up to second and promotes Carlos Sainz to the podium places. Sergio Perez moves to fourth and extends his lead over Hamilton in the fight for second in the drivers’ championship. Russell jumps from seventh to fifth, Pierre Gasly to sixth and Lance Stroll to seventh. Yuki Tsunoda was eighth It also means that Williams score with both cars, Alex Albon inheriting ninth place and Logan Sargeant grabbing his first F1 point with P10 on home soil.
Stay tuned to TOI Auto for all updates on the 2023 Formula One season as well as other F1 news.