Charles Leclerc United States Grand Prix

Sophia Crothall

Yee-haw! Formula 1 returned in late October and the United States kicked off the triple header around the Americas. The United States Grand Prix in Austin was a spectacular weekend, with both a regular race and a sprint.

In the end, it was Charles Leclerc who took home the trophy, with Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen joining him on the podium. Here’s a recap of how the weekend went.

Free Practice

With the sprint weekend format, drivers only had one session to get their set up of the car right. Sainz set the fastest time, with Leclerc making it a Ferrari 1-2. Red Bull rival Verstappen finished behind in third, with Lando Norris in fourth.

The Spaniard set a time of 1:33.602, with Leclerc just 0.021 seconds slower.

Following a wave of controversy, Red Bull made an adjustment to their car. Rival teams had complained over a ride height device, triggering concerns. Liam Lawson also made his return to the motorsport, after it was announced post-Singapore that he would be replacing Daniel Ricciardo at VCARB for the remainder of the 2024 season.

Sprint race

Qualifying

Verstappen set the fastest time, scoring him pole position for the first time since the Austrian Grand Prix in July. George Russell finished just 0.012 seconds behind. Whilst Verstappen told ESPN he was “happy with today,” the same could not be said for Norris. 0.250 seconds off Verstappen, the Brit said “In a way, happy with P4, because I feel like it could have been a lot worse, but my lap was shocking.”

Unlike his teammate though, Oscar Piastri had a disaster, being knocked out in SQ1. His fastest lap time was deleted as a result of exceeding track limits at Turn 19. Sergio Perez also struggled, failing to make it into Q3 by 0.192 seconds.

The Race

The 19-lap race certainly proved to be a taster for Sunday’s Grand Prix. Verstappen secured his first F1 race win since Austria, and was awarded eight championship points, extending the gap between himself and Norris. Verstappen has won all four sprint races so far this season too.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz secured second place, after he charged through the field from fifth on the grid, and over took Norris on the final lap. The McLaren driver finished third.

Both Haas drivers also secured points, finishing seventh and eighth.

Grand Prix

Qualifying

Although he lost out on first place in the sprint, Norris set the fastest time during qualifying, meaning he would start on pole on Sunday. A crash from George Russell in Q3 ended the session early, just as Verstappen looked set to beat the McLaren driver. Both Ferrari drivers lined up behind the pair, with Sainz in third and Leclerc in fourth.

Overall, the session was poor for Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton being knocked out in Q1. The seven-time world champion complained that the car was a “nightmare”, with an inconsistent balance and no grip. He requested that his team should allow him to start from the pit lane so they could alter his set up before the race.

For Lawson, he inherited a 60-grid-place penalty, meaning he would start P20 regardless. On Sunday, Russell started from the pit-lane, and Zhou Guanyu also received a penalty; this moved Hamilton to P17, from P19.

The United States Grand Prix

In what had been a spectacular weekend for Ferrari, it got even better with a one-two finish on the podium. A late time penalty demoted Norris behind title rival Verstappen to fourth. Leclerc’s win ended Verstappen’s run of three successive wins at the COTA.

The safety car also made its first appearance since Canada when Hamilton spun off on lap two and beached his car in the gravel at turn 19. The Brit retired from the race after a miserable weekend.

The greatest controversy came from Norris and Verstappen once again. Norris caught and passed Verstappen for third, but exceeded the limits of the track while doing so. This meant the McLaren driver was awarded a five-second penalty. The Dutchman is now 57 points clear of the Brit in the standings.

Rookies Lawson and Franco Colapinto both scored points, whilst Esteban Ocon set the fastest lap and finished P18.

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Featured image courtesy of Joe McGowan on Flickr. No changes were made to this image. Image licence found here.

Sophia is a MA Cultural and Creative Industries graduate from Cardiff University, and a BSc Criminology graduate from the University of Bristol. She has experience writing for publications such as GPBlog and Metro. Sophia runs her own F1 Tik Tok account: @sophiacrothallf1

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